(ENG) D&D 5a Ed. - A Wizard's Bestiary - Flip eBook Pages 151-200 (2024)

150 A Wizard’s Bestiary Fig. 13. Al Borak In the Old Testament, Zachariah records two visions of horses that appear to be guardian angels of the world. In the first vision, an angel rides a red horse and is followed by many red and speckled horses; they go to and fro throughout the Earth and report that all is well. In the second vision, four chariots are pulled by angelic horses: the first chariot has red horses that go to the West; the second chariot has black horses that go to the North; the third chariot has grizzled (grey or blue roan) steeds that go to the South; and the forth chariot has white horses that go to the East. There are also some bay horses that are keen to head out on their own. The prophet Mohammed had many horses, the most famous of which was Al Borak, a stallion whose name means “the lightning.” Given to the Prophet by the Archangel Gabriel, it was upon the back of this fiery angelic horse that the Prophet ascended into heaven. There are two different de- scriptions of Borak. In the first one his face is like a man’s but his cheeks are like a horse’s, and his eyes are the color of jacinths (hyacinth flowers) and as brilliant as stars. He has wings like those of an eagle, speaks with the voice of a man, and glitters all over with radiant light. In the second glowing (but slightly more prosaic) description from Croquemitaine, II. 9, Al Borak is characterized as a tall, strong, and cleanlimbed steed, whose saffron-golden coat is as glossy as marble. Both his eyes and nostrils are large and full of fire. He has a white star on his forehead, a long, silky mane hangs from his high, arched neck, and his thick tail sweeps the ground.3 Despite his mutable appearance, Borak was one of the few animals to be admitted into Paradise. In the icy realm of the Norse Heavens lived the Horses of the Valkyries. Originally, “horses of the Valkyries” meant the wolves and ravens that gathered around a battle, but in later tales, they became nine cloudy white horses with great swan wings. They flew over the land, enabling the Valkyries to choose and gather the slain from the battlefield; or over the sea, lifting the dead out of the longships or the sea itself. Their manes and tails dripped dew and frost, lightning came from their hooves and from the swords of the battle-maidens, and the flickering aurora borealis was reflected in both the shields and the horse-armor. Demon Horses Everything must have its opposite, and so we must also have Demon-Horses. If you have ever had to ride an angry horse on a stormy night, you too would probably have a tale or two to tell afterward! Yet it is interesting that as much as we love a thing, we often fear it even more. Thus we have many more stories of demonic equines than we have of the angelic variety, though one or two are definitely borderline cases. The original meaning of the word hobgoblin is a Demon-Horse. Its derivation is hob, from the Middle English word hoby, meaning “a small horse,” and goblin, meaning a demon or malicious fairy. Appearing as a misshapen black horse, the spectral steed known as Brag might be seen on lonely moors and roads of England’s northern counties, where it would lure wanderers to their death. You would rather not encounter the Horse of Gwyn ap Nudd, for it is the courser of the Wild Huntsman of Wales. The Huntsman comes astride a Demon Horse of blackest hue, whose name means “the torment of battle.” He hunts not the deer, but the souls of humanity, for he is the lord of the Celtic Underworld. In Mecklinburg, Germany, another phantasmal Wild Hunt is sometimes seen, in which the White Horse of Frau Wode charges through the wooded hillsides. This apparition of an archaic goddess on her spirited white palfrey is accompanied by white hounds and ghostly wild beasts, and yet her appearance is seen as benign and a harbinger of good fortune and a bountiful harvest. The Yellow Horse of Loch Lundie is sometimes considered the devil in disguise. It appears as a golden yellow pony to folks breaking the Sabbath to go fishing in the Loch. Anyone who tries to mount the horse they immediately stick to it and cannot get free. Fig. 14. Valkrie Fig. 12. Zachariahs’s vision Fig. 15. Brag by Dana Keyes

Creatures of Night 151 Fig. 17. Conopenii by Tracy Swangler The horse then carries them off and they are never seen again. Even more flagrant scoundrels must beware the Each Tened (Gaelic, “fire horse”) of Irish folklore. This flaming phantom horse car- ries off evildoers, who are then compelled to ride it, burning, for eternity. Out of Asia come other equine terror horses. The Bai-Ma (“white horse”) was a strange albino horse with a tail like that of an ox and a voice like the roar of a tiger. It lived in the Bai Ma Valley of China, between the Sichuan and Gansu provinces. In Persian mythology, the Conopenii was a giant firebreathing horse with the head of an ass. Keshi (Sanskrit, “long-haired”) was a giant, vicious, long-maned horse in Hindu myth that attacked humans until the god Vishnu choked it to death by shoving his arm down its throat. The Rigvedas also mention the Yatudhanas, a horse-headed monster with huge claws that fed on both human and horse flesh and drank cow milk. Agni, the god of fire, cut off its head. Even in the United States you find such demon steeds lurking. The tale of Sam Hart and the Devil’s Mare is an American folk-legend of a farmer who loves to race, and who is challenged by a stranger riding a spirited black mare smelling of brimstone. Sam wins the race on his plow horse, Betsy, by detouring through a churchyard where the Devil’s Mare can’t follow. His reward for winning the race is the black mare herself. The Demon Mare wins every race Sam enters and makes him wealthy, but he becomes mean and greedy, losing his wife, his faithful horse, and dying an alcoholic.4 Such legends predate Christian times. The ancient Horses of the Wild Hunt are as dark as pitch or pale and windblown with fiery eyes and eerie neighing. They ride the stormy night skies to the sound of thunderous hoofbeats and the crash of falling tree branches. Various gods and goddesses are associated with this hunt, including Odin, Hel, Herne, Frau Holde, Gwen ap Nudd, and Arawn. They are accompanied by a huge pack of baying black or white hounds, as well as thunder and lightning. In some areas, to hear the passing of the hunt was a good omen, but in others, it foretold a dire event. Eventually the “hunters” became identified with malevolent Faery folk, cruel or greedy nobles, and finally—predictably—with the devil himself. The horses can fly like the wind, and appear and disappear at will. They sometimes leave their hoofprints in stone. The Horses of the Morrigan and the Cailleach are the steeds of warrior goddesses; ridden into battle, they carry off the souls of warriors fated to die. In many ways they are similar to the angelic horses of the Valkyries. They are black or as red as blood, with glowing eyes. They fly over the battlefield in the company of crows and ravens and smell the scent of death on a man even before he falls. The sound of their unearthly whinnies and the call of ravens are the last sounds a fallen warrior ever hears. Then, swooping down, they bear away his soul between the worlds and into the Summerland, where all is green and there is no more war. The Morrigan sat astride a horse with one leg when she rode to meet Cuchulain in the Tain bo Regamna.5 From out of the pages of the Book of Revelation in the Bible comes the image of a tall white or pale grey horse ridden by a skeletal figure in a black hooded robe and carrying a scythe. It is the Pale Horse of Death. “And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Fig. 20. Death Tarot card by Pamela Coleman Smith Fig. 19. The Morrigan in her chariot Fig. 16. Each Tened by Ian Daniels Fig. 18.The Wild Hunt

152 A Wizard’s Bestiary Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.” (Rev. 6:8) From this beginning, a millennium of folklore has been spun about Death’s Pale Horse. His perfect expression is seen in the white horse of the Death card in the Tarot. The Horse of Death can fly, go under the water, and walk through walls or through fire—in short, anywhere death occurs and souls need releasing. In a more modern interpretation, he has become less of a demon and more of a bringer of the compassionate grace stroke. This point of view is typified by Binky, Death’s horse in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels. Hades’ Horses, though not properly demonic, are the four horses that pull the chariot of the Lord of the Underworld in Greek myth, and are certainly considered to be creatures of the dark. Their names areAbatos (“inaccessible”), Abaster (“away from the stars”), A’eton (“swift as an eagle”), and Nonios. They are black as coal, with eyes that shine like bright jewels. Their manes are long and loose, and they can surround themselves with a cloud of smoky darkness that hides them entirely from view. Where they strike the earth with their hooves, it cracks open to make caverns. Thus did the Dark God carry away Koré in his golden chariot to become his Queen of the Dead. According to the Romans, every horse had a piece of black flesh upon its lips (called hippomanes by the Greeks). It was thought that a mare would refuse to suckle a colt afflicted with this demonic parasite, though sometimes the mother herself would eat it. Theokritos mentions the hippomanes as coming from Arcadia, “where it maddened colts and swift mares.” Also from Greek mythology come the Mares of Diomedes. This team of four gigantic, maneating mares was owned by the Thracian King of the Bistones in ancient Greece. Sometimes depicted as winged, the horses were related to the Gorgons and Harpies. Their names were Deinos (“terrible”), Lampon (“bright”), Xanthos (“yellow”), and Podarkes (“swift-foot”). Diomedes fed his mares on the flesh of newcomers to his kingdom, but Heracles tamed these mares as his eighth Labor: “He controlled with bit those mares who greedily champed their bloody food at gory mangers with unbridled jaws....” Then the mighty hero fed Diomedes to his own horses and drove the now replete and docile mares to Mycenae, where he dedicated them to the goddess Hera. Their descendants were said to still be around at the time of Alexander the Great (356–323 BCE); indeed, his charger Bucephalus was said to be one of them. A thousand years later, Native Americans also had their share of man-eating, troublesome nags. Shoshone Indians tell legends of a Black Devil, a jet black stallion with fiery red eyes and sharp teeth said to stalk and eat humans. But all of these dark horses are eclipsed by the grandmother of them all. She is one of the oldest shadows haunting our subconscious mind, galloping off the limestone walls from the time of the caves. I mean, of course, the NightMare. Of all the Demon-Horses mentioned, she is the most familiar and ubiquitous. The NightMare is an archetypal being composed of scraps of myth and folklore from many cultures. She is the red horse of Ereshkigal, Sumerian goddess of the Underworld; the shadowy horse of Greek Hecate at the crossroads of sleep and death; the icy skeletal steed of Hel in Norse legend; the vampiric Saxon Mare or Mara; and the clacking, biting skull on a pole called the Mari Lludd in Wales. She is even joked about in popular culture as the horse of Casper the friendly ghost. Most of the high and holy images of her have weathered down, but are kept alive by the experience of the NightMare itself. These elements have fused together and given shape to something that has the power to follow us into our own dreams. The NightMare is a succubus that sits on sleepers’ chests, sending them enticing and erotic dreams which slowly become more and more horrifying. The weight of the NightMare makes it difficult to breathe Fig. 23. Nightmare by Stephanie Hahn-Synnabar Fig. 21. Hades abducting Kore Fig. 22. The man-eating Mares of Diomedes

Creatures of Night 153 as she feeds on the fear and agony of the sleepers. She slowly draws their souls out of their bodies until they either awaken or expire in their sleep. Death can, in fact, occur as a result of a visitation of Mare. Modern science talks about sleep paralysis and offers their own potions and remedies, but still must acknowledge the mysterious and deathly power of the NightMare. She dwells in a mare’s nest of tangled weeds, bones, feathers and junk that often hides some sort of treasure trove. The best methods of keeping her at bay are to hang a horseshoe over the bedroom door, hammer horseshoe nails into the bed itself, or hang a holy stone (a stone with a hole) around the neck of the sleeper. Various herbs in the artemesia family are also efficacious. To keep Mare away from horses, an iron key is hung on a cotton thread in the stalls or attached to the halters. Keys are the symbol of the goddess Hecate, and thus the horse is placed under the protection of a more powerful entity. NightMare is a truly ancient being that can hold us all in her power. May we awaken to find ourselves safe in our beds. Yet sometimes the demonic horse can be working for you instead of against you. The Wizard Michael Scott’s Demon-Horse comes from a 16th-century legend telling of this Wizard who conjured a fiend in the shape of a huge black horse with silver hooves and incredible powers. He flew over the ocean from Scotland to Paris and conversed in human speech, attempting to trick his rider into mentioning holy names in order to get free. When the Wizard confronted the king of France, the Demon-Horse stamped three times: at the first stamp all the bells on the steeples rang, and at the second stamp three of the palace’s towers fell down. The king capitulated before the horse stamped a third time. From medieval chansons de geste comes the Demon-Horse Bayard, whose name means “bright bay colored.” Led from hell by the sorcerer Malagigi, he was given to Aymon of Dordogne. This magickal steed had many amazing powers: he was swifter than any other horse, he could understand human language, and he could grow larger or smaller at will. He was inherited by Reynaud, the son of Aymon, and though he served the son as well as he had the father (even winning a golden crown from Charlemagne in a race), he fell victim to that emperor’s rage and jealousy. Charlemagne conquered the sons of Aymon and had Bayard weighted with a millstone and thrown into the Seine. Some say he drowned, but some say the steed used his demon-spawned magick to free himself. For centuries, farmers in the Ardennes Forest saw his tracks, and heard his hoofbeats and neighing at the full moon. According to tradition, one of the hoofprints may still be seen in the forest of Soignes, and another on a rock near Dinant. Divine and Immortal Horses Now the winged horses and the charioteers of the gods are all of them noble and of noble descent...and there the charioteer putting up his horses at the stall, gives them ambrosia to eat and nectar to drink. —Plato, Phaedrus, 246 Some horses achieve divinity all on their own; certainly Pegasus is one, as well as many other noble steeds mentioned previously. Other horses, however, gain their status by association, such as the chariot horses of the various gods. Because horses are accorded status mostly in connection with their relationship to a rider, it is sometimes difficult to separate the equine member of that team from its human partner in this regard. Nevertheless, we have to find ourselves wondering where the Lone Ranger would have been without Silver? Of course, the answer is “on foot.” The Greek list of Hippoi Athanatoi (“deathless horses”) could go on for pages.6 Though many of the gods had chariots drawn by their totem creatures— for example, Aphrodite’s shell-shaped chariot drawn by gigantic swans—most of the Olympians had their favorite horses, whether riding in a chariot or astride. Zeus, Hera, Ares, Nike, Demeter, Poseidon, and Hades all had chariots pulled by teams of mighty winged stallions, or mares fed on nectar and ambrosia, the elixir of immortality. The Dioskouroi, Castor (called the “horse tamer”) and Pollux, were the divine twins. Both of them put together a team of the most marvelous divine hors- Fig. 25. Bayard Fig. 24. Micheal Scott Fig. 26. The Dioskouroi

154 A Wizard’s Bestiary es imaginable to race their chariots through the clouds and over the Earth. Harpagos, Kyllaros, Phlogeus, and Xanthos comprised one of the teams. When the Romans were battling the Latins at Lake Regillus, the heavenly champions fought at the head of their legions. These Hippoi Athanatoi carried news of the victory with lightning speed to Rome. At the fountain of Inturna, the divine twins watered their lathered steeds, and the grateful people built a temple there in their honor. On the volcanic rock at Lake Regillus, marks in the shape of horses’ hooves were believed to have been left by the celestial chargers. The Immortal Mares of Laomedon were given to Tros by Zeus in compensation for the abduction of Ganymede. They could run over water and the heads of standing grain. They were sold to Laomedon, the king of Troy, who offered them to Heracles for rescuing his daughter Hesione from a Sea-Monster. When Laomedon reneged on the agreement, Heracles sacked Troy in order to claim these fabulous creatures. Fig. 27. Sleipnir and Odin The Norse are most remembered for their dragon ships, but horses were a very important part of the culture, both as mounts and as sacrifices. Each day the Aesir rode over Bifrost (the rainbow bridge) to visit other realms, so of course the gods and goddesses of this pantheon had their favorite equine supporters—the most famous of which is Sleipnir(“slipper,” as in smoothly gliding). This magickal horse was the eight-legged steed of Odin, the great Norse AllFather. Sleipnir could run faster than the wind, traveling in the air, over all the land and sea, and down into the regions of the goddess Hel—all in only nine days. The eight legs symbolize the points of the compass. There is a riddle about him and his master: Who are the two who ride to the Thing? Three eyes they have together, Ten feet and one tail.7 Odin of course has only one eye, having sacrificed the other to gain ultimate wisdom. Sleipnir was grey like a cloudy Nordic sky, and he gained immortality (until Ragnarok) by feeding upon the great World Tree, Yggdrasil. Odin inscribed the runes he won through his great sacrifice on the teeth of Sleipnir, which granted the horse the boon of supernatural wisdom. He was considered by the Norse people to be the greatest of all horses. The other horses of the Aesir are Gladr, Gyllir, Glaer, Skeidbrimir, Silfrintoppr, Synir, Gils, Falhofnir, Gulltoppr, and Lettfeti. Another famous Norse horse was Svadilfari (“he who makes an unfortunate journey”). He was a huge magickal horse belonging to the giant Hrimthurse, who agreed to erect a defensive wall around Asgard, home of the Aesir gods, in return for the sun and the moon— and also the goddess Freya. Persuaded by Loki, the gods accepted and set a deadline of one winter, which they were certain Hrimthurse would be unable to meet. But the gigantic stallion Svadilfari had the strength of 100 mortal horses, and with his help the wall was nearly completed by the eve of the last day. The desperate gods demanded that Loki do something to stop the giant from winning, whereupon Loki transformed himself into a beautiful white mare in heat, seducing Svadilfari away and compelling Hrimthurse to abandon the wall in order to chase his horse. Of this union was born the eight-legged steed Sleipnir, after which Loki returned to his own form. In the Celtic pantheon, horses were very important, as evidenced by their appearance in artwork— most especially the huge horses cut into the chalk hillsides. But most of the divine equines were under the guardianship of one or more of the horse goddesses: Epona, Rhiannon, and the Morrigan. Because these goddesses rode horses and changed into horses at will, their mutable forms made it difficult to discern who or what they really were. However, one divine Celtic horse that has come down to us in his own right is Aonbarr (“unique supremacy”). This magnificent stallion of the Irish god of the sea, Mannan Mac Lir, could cross any surface, be it mountain, plain, or ocean, and could even dive beneath the waves. He was loaned to the god Lugh on his quest for the sword of light. Sometimes divinity comes about in a very odd or even backward way. For instance, take the story of El Morzillo, the favorite mount of Hernando Cortez. Morzillo was a shiny black stallion with a reddish luster. He injured his foot and had to be left behind in the village of Peten Lake. There, the Indians, who had never seen a horse before, worshipped him as a god. When he died of their dietary excesses, his image was carved in stone, replacing the image of their previous Fig. 28. Aonbarr and Mannanan

Creatures of Night 155 rain-god. Priests who came back later were horrified, but El Morzillo became the only horse from the Spanish Conquest of the New World whose name we know: the horse who became an Aztec God. Horses of the Sun the Moon the Wind, and the Night Look! His horses mount so high, Good of limb and stout and strong. In the forehead of the sky, Runs their course the heavens along. —The Rig Vedas (trans. R.T. Griffith)8 The Sun The Chariot Horses of Helios, the Greek sungod, are immortal and wildly strong. Sometimes white with flaming golden-red manes and tails, they fly through the heavens pulling the great burning chariot that is the sun. Once, they ran away with Phaeton, the mortal son of Helios, and almost burned up the Earth until Zeus stopped them. His team of seven are: Bronte (“thunder”), Eos (“dawning”), Ethiops (“flashing”), Ethon (“flam-ing”), Erythreios (“redproducing”), Philogea (“earthloving”), and Pyrois (“fiery”). His alternate team of four are: Actaeon (“brilliance”), Phlegon (“burning”), as well as Eos and Pyrois. Actaeon is the most strong-willed and headstrong; Eos is the slowest witted; Pyrois is the gentlest and most easily handled; but Phlegon is the favorite. The Greek goddess of dawn, Eos, drives a smaller chariot than that of the sun-god. She has a team of two of the immortal flying horses: Lampos (“shining”) and Phaethon (“gleaming”)—the latter named after the unfortunate son of Helios. Surya, the Hindu sun-god, also drives a team of beautiful flying horses called the Seven Harits, all of which are mares. They pull his golden chariot through the skies of India. The Seven Harits are: Gayatri, Brhati, Usnik, Jagati, Tristup, Anustup, and Pankti. Seven Gandarvas, who are demigods of nature, follow in the form of stallions to accompany his flight. Sometimes, Surya appears as an avatar in the form of horse named Tarkshya. In ancient Armenian mythology, Enik, Menik, Benik, and Senik were the names of the horses of the sun, and are the source of the children’s choosing rhyme, “eenie, meenie, miney, moe.” The Norse sun-deity is a goddess called Sunna or Sol, and she drives a team of two giant, shining horses: Alsvid (“all-swift”) and Arvakur(“early waker”). The Norse personification of the day, Dagur, has a beautiful flying horse, Skinfaxi (“shining mane”), whose mane lights up the Earth and sky. Though horses came later to the Native Americans, they took to them and learned to love them and ride them like no one else. The Navaho sun-father, Tsohanoai, had the most beautiful and swiftest horses in all the many levels of being. There were five horses for the different times of the day: an albino for dawn, a blue roan for noon, a red chestnut for sunset, and a dapple grey or dark bay for twilight. The NightHorse was a coal black steed named Nightaway, and he was the favorite of Tsohanoai’s right-handed son. Nightaway was a sleek, long-maned black stallion Fig. 29. El Morzillo Fig. 30. Helios and his sun-chariot Fig. 31. Sunna’s chariot of the sun. Fig. 32. Tsohanoi’s son and Nightaway

156 A Wizard’s Bestiary whose fine coat was flecked with tiny silver flecks of mica. He could outrun a comet, leap the tail of a shooting star, and dance in the circle of the rainbow. Tsohanoai’s right-hand son rode his father’s most powerful horse to Earth. Nightaway ran away with the boy, ripping the reins from his hands, snorting fire, and plunging through the starry midnight sky unchecked, but the boy, whose manhood rite had made him a god, recaptured the reins and rode Nightaway into the dawn. Nightaway became the ancestor of all Navaho horses.8 The Moon To many people, the moon was a goddess or a god carried through the skies on Lunar Horses. The Greek Titaness of the moon, Selene, drove a silver chariot with two milk-white steeds, or rode bareback on a single white mare with a silver bridle. You can see her image carved in the marble of the Parthenon. The Norse moon-god was Mani, and his horse was Alsvider (“all swift”), and there are tales of Mani mounted on Alsvider pursuing the chariot of Sunna the sun-goddess. When he caught her there was an eclipse of the sun. Arva, the winged silver horse of Soma, the Hindu moon-god, flew over the Earth, illuminating it with his brilliance. In Lithuania, the horse of Menulis, the moon-god, has many names. He is called Kumeliuku Aukso Pasagom, “the foal with the golden shoes,” or Laukas Arklys, “the horse with the shining white muzzle” or “horse of the fields.” This shining white horse is sent by Menulis to the aid of young heroes in order to help them find the maidens for whom they are searching. The Wind Allah said to the south wind, “I want to make a creature out of you. Condense.” And the wind condensed. He then said to the newly created horse, “I will make you peerless and preferred above all the other animals. You alone shall fly without wings, for all the blessings of the world shall be placed between your eyes and happiness shall hang from your forelock.”9 On blustery days, horses in a pasture will “get the wind up” and run around wildly with their tales raised, shaking their heads, and snorting and bucking just as though they were challenging the wind to a race. Galloping over the earth with the sound of their hooves like rolling thunder and the wind at their backs blowing their manes into a tangle, no wonder so many folktales connect horses with the wind. In Sanskrit, the expression vatacvas means “wind horse,” and it is still commonly used to describe the swiftest horses. The Banat al Rih (“daughters of the wind”) are the archetypal pureblood Arabian horses. In an apocryphal tale, the prophet Mohammed had a stable of 100 of the fastest and most beautiful horses and decided to test them for loyalty. He penned them up for three days until they were mad with thirst. Then he let them go to the water, but blew a battle horn to summon them. Only five mares answered the call; they became his favorite horses, and their foals alone were honored with the name asil—”purest blood.” The Greeks might try tracing their racehorses back to the 12 Mares of Erichtonius, sired by Boreas, the north wind, with a herd of mares belonging to the king of Dardania. The resulting 12 fillies born could run over the heads of grain in a field of wheat and not bend them, or race along the top of the ocean and gallop on the crests of the breakers. In Hindu myth, the Dappled Mares of the Maruts are the horses formed of grey storm clouds ridden by the storm-gods. In Norse mythology, Gna was a handmaiden to Frigg, and she rode a horse whose magickal powers allowed him to move through the air and over the water, running errands for Odin’s wife. His name was Hofvarpnir, meaning “hoof-thrower.” Native American people of the Choctaw tribe have a story of the love and self-sacrifice of the Choctaw Wind-Horse. The last of an archetypal race of free horses with all the powers of nature, Wind-Horse could run through the air and he felt no fear. He was the fastest, kindest, and gentlest of all his kindred. Wind Horse would carry any Indian in distress to safety, but once, out of love, he carried a small wounded boy all the way to the Happy Hunting Ground even though he knew he could not return. The Indian people lost Wind-Horse, but the Great Spirit sent everyday horses to them to be their friends.10 Fig. 33. Selene Fig. 35. Banat al Rih

Creatures of Night 157 Night-Horses Not all NightHorses are NightMares. We have many positive images of the horses of the night. The Vedic Cosmic Horse symbolizes the night sky where the Pitris “adorn the black horse with pearls.” In Navaho tales, the sun-father’s favorite horse was the midnight black Nightaway, who became the progenitor of all horses. Hrimfaxi (“frost mane”) is the horse of Nott, the Norse goddess of night. He was coal black with a scattering of white hairs. His mane and tail were white, and dew-drops dripped from them and from the champing of his bit. These drops, similar to the ambrosia dropped by the horses of the Vedic God Indra, fertilize the Earth. The Chariot Horses of Nyx, the Greek goddess of night, are described by many of the later Greek poets. She was sometimes seen as a dark-haired goddess wearing a misty black veil and seated in a black chariot pulled by sable horses, scattering stars in their wake. As she yokes her horses at sunset, the stars come out to be her attendants. Ancient memories of these nocturnal equines extraordinaire persist in modern narratives. Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés tells us: “The old people in my family say as meteors flash through the night sky, it is the Sky Smithy hammering on the iron anvil. She is shaping raw silver buckles for the saddle straps of the NightHorses. They are the ones that pull the sun up from under the dark earth every night.”11 HEROIC AND WAR HORSES Much of the history of humanity’s partnership with horses is related to warfare. The term “war horse” is synonymous with courage, loyalty, and stoicism in the face of desperate odds. It’s no wonder that legends have arisen around these heroic chargers, because nowhere does the line between the real and the fantastic blur as strongly as on the battlefield. As a motif in folklore, a Hero Horse will only allow a true hero to ride it. In a Russian fairy tale, Little Tom tries to pass himself off as a hero, but when he tries to ride the horse of a true fallen hero, the Hero Horse knows he is a fake and will not permit him to mount. In addition, the Hero Horse can speak, and often warns his master or gives good advice. The Hero Horse has compassion as well as wisdom, and weeps for the fate of his master. Even after death, the bones of a Hero Horse contain the strength of the horse itself. Perhaps the strangest of all the Hero Horse myths comes from Hungary, in the form of tales about the Tatos. The Tatos is born deformed. It bursts out of a black pentagonal egg on an Ash Wednesday, after the hero has carried it for seven summers and seven winters under his arm. It is fed upon golden oats from a silver field. The day it is born the Tatos colt grows half as high as a tree and its mane turns shining silver. On the second day it is higher than the tree and its coat turns a rich gold. And on the third day all its blemishes are removed; it becomes as high as the heavens and can bear the hero on their journeys.12 In the Iranian epic, the Shanamah, the gigantic hero Rustam chooses Raksh, a huge, red-speckled young stallion, as his steed. The charger is such a determined partner in warfare that he goes out and fights the monsters while his master sleeps. He is also wise and sensitive, communicating with Rustam about impending danger. In the heat of battle, Rustam ignors Raksh’s warning, thinking him afraid. He commands Raksh to go forward and applies the whip; Raksh plunges forward and into a hidden trap, and they are impaled on buried stakes.13 Another attribute of the Hero Horse is that it will often avenge its master’s death. Abjer is the incomparably brilliant and loyal horse of Antar, one of the greatest desert warriors of Arab folklore. A stallion blacker than night and faster than the wind, Antar purchases him at the cost of everything he owns. When Antar is killed in battle, Abjer goes mad and avenges him by killing every single one of the enemies except the leader—who is deliberately left eyeless and maimed in the Fig. 36. Nott and Hrimfaxi Fig. 37. The chariot horses of Nyx Fig. 38. Rustam and Raksh

158 A Wizard’s Bestiary desert to suffer. Often the hero and his horse have to overcome a handicap, either physical or spiritual. Sivushko is the fantastic coal-black steed of the medieval Russian bogatyr (knight), Ilya Muromets. The stallion is also called Barushka, Matushka, or Kosmatushka. The most beautiful horse in all of Russia, he is capable of taking 33-mile-long strides and clearing whole mountain ranges in a single leap. Both horse and hero are born lame, but are healed by a mysterious monk. Together they kill a monster called the Nightingale Robber, and single-handedly defend the city of Chernigov from invasion. Oftentimes, real heroes and their horses can become legends long after they have gone on to the pastures in the sky. Krali Marko was a Bulgarian war hero who lived around 1350 CE and fought the Ottoman Empire, and Shar-koliya was his mighty horse. Legend, however, is eternal: Marko was adopted by a vila (a forest nymph), and he was so strong that he chose the only horse he could not throw over his shoulder. Sharkoliya was a piebald stallion that could leap over mountains, snort fire, and drink wine mixed with blood. Though they were killed in battle, it is believed that they sleep in a cave, waiting for times when they are needed to inspire their countrymen to victory. The most recent sighting occurred during World War I at the siege of Castle Marko. Likewise, Hengroen and Llamrei— King Arthur’s favorite stallion and mare—are said to be interred with him in a secret cave near Badbury Rings, and will emerge when Britain’s last battle is fought. One of the most famous warhorses of all time, Bucephalus, was the wild and unruly stallion that no one could ride until the young Alexander of Macedon climbed on his back. He turned the horse’s head toward the sun so he would not be afraid of his shadow. His name means “bull’s head,” and it is said that he had horns like those a bull. Alexander the Great is said to have fed the huge black charger on the flesh of conquered enemies, à la Diomedes, and given him wine mixed with bull’s blood to drink. Bucephalus carried Alexander on his conquest of the world and died fighting war elephants in India, carrying his master to safety before expiring. Alexander built a city on the spot where Bucephalus was buried and named it after him. Although Alexander himself was considered a god in certain regions, Bucephalus was considered to be a mortal, if magickal, creature. However, the Roman emperor Caligula declared his horse Incitus to be a god, adorned him with jewels, and then rode him into the halls of the Roman senate, naming him as consul. Caligula explained that his horse was far more intelligent than those men who tried to run the empire. Another Roman emperor with a strange horse was Julius Caesar, whose horse supposedly had toes instead of regular hoofs. This polydactylic equine was said to portend Caesar’s world conquest. On the other hand, the divine coursers of Ares, the god of war, were the very archetypes of savage warhorses and needed no mere emperor’s declaration to confirm this. Born of the north wind, Boreas, and one of the Erinnyes (Furies), their names were: Aithon (“red fire”), Phlogeus (“flame”), Phobos (“panic”), and Konobos (“tumult”). They breathed fire, dried up rivers, and the Earth herself trembled beneath their hooves. In the German epic poem, the Nibelungenleid, Brynhilde the Valkyrie had a magickal white horse named Grane. He could fly, and had the power to carry his rider through any battle unscathed. He was given to the hero Siegfried as a love gift from Brynhilde, and when Siegfried was killed, Grane carried Brynhilde into his flaming funeral pyre. Fig. 39. Antar and Abjer Fig. 40. Sivushko by Vastnetsov, 1914 Fig. 41. Sharkoliya and Krali Marko Fig. 42. Alexander the Great and Bucephalus

Creatures of Night 159 Fig. 44. Neugle by Oberon PHANTOM HORSES The White Horse of Uffington is the most famous and impressive hillside carving in Britain. It dates from around 1000 BCE and is incised through the green turf and into the underlying white chalk. It is difficult to see the entire animal from the ground; the best views are from the air. There is a small hillock with a circular depression in the center, called the manger. Folklore says that the horse sometimes comes alive during the full moon and eats from the manger. Many people leave gifts for the horse, asking it to ride into their dreams and bring them fertility, prosperity, and healing.14 In the Shetland Islands you might encounter Neugles. Once dangerous kelpies, these are now benevolent Horse Phantoms that will rise up out of the bogs or around moors and help lost travelers find their way back home safely. They leave round hoofprints beside burns (streams), where they take off to jump over the water. Neugles are small ponies, but they have hoofs the size of dinner plates. At midnight in the Ilmington Hills, an apparition known as the Gloucester Night Coach haunts the lonely roads. A coach drawn by six dark horses passes over places where no mortal can drive. Throughout Britain, Headless Phantom Horses abound. It is simply amazing how many of these truncated ghosts haunt the scenes of their former activities. Headless Nick from the Harry Potter book series is not the only one of his kind. From Lanreath in Cornwall come headless horses pulling a carriage. Sir Thomas Boleyn, the father of Anne Boleyn (“Anne of the Thousand Days”), can be seen with his daughter riding through the countryside in their coaches with headless horses. Even in the United States, areas of New England are haunted by several genuine versions of the nemesis of Ichabod Crane and his boney old cob. A1999 movie popularized the tale all over again, embellishing it with a Hessian mercenary and his huge, wild-eyed Friesian steed. White Spirit-Horses can be both harbingers of magick and otherworldly apparitions. When the Lakota Sioux Indians see a white horse, they know that it brings a message from the spirit world. When the Navajo see a white horse, they know that it brings a gift from the sun-father. The milk-white charger of the prairies was so fast that he could never be caught, and so smart and canny he could hide anywhere and evade any trouble. “Behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow…” From the Lone Ranger’s Silver to the wild white mustang stallion only glimpsed but never captured, the mystical mystery horse is the phantasmic apparition tantamount to the Native American’s White Buffalo. TALKING AND PROPHETIC HORSES To Horses beyond all mortal creatures cunning Nature has given a subtle mind and heart. ...Ere now in battle a horse, Xanthos, has burst the bonds of silence and overleapt the ordinance of Nature and taken a human voice and a tongue like that of man. Arion too, had such powers of speech and could run with light feet over the cornears and brake them not.—Oppian,Cynegetica15 The most renowned of all their kind in classical history are Balios and Xanthos. This pair of immortal horses, a dappled grey and a golden bay, were born to the harpy Podarge, and sired by Zephyrus, the west wind. Poseidon gave them to King Peleus at his wedding to the sea-goddess, Thetis. In turn, Peleus gave them to his son, Achilles, who took them into the Trojan War. They pulled his war chariot and helped to make him invincible. He loaned them to his beloved friend Patroklos, and when he was slain by Hector, the horses grieved so much by his body that they would not leave until commanded personally by Zeus. When Achilles rebuked them for allowing Patroklos to be killed, Xanthos answered him, “We will keep you safe for this time, O hard Achilles, but the day of your death is near. Yet we are not the ones to blame. Know instead that it is a great god and a powerful Destiny.”16 Arion, the magickal flying horse, also spoke and warned his master Adrastos not to go to battle in Thebes, lest he be defeated. Adrastos would not listen and yet, out of the famous “Seven against Thebes,” Adrastos was the only one saved, by his horse Arion. Germans, Slavs, and Persians all had Equimantic Horses. Tacitus tells us that the ancient Germans practiced a kind of augury with sacred horses, listening to their neighing and interpreting it as the messages of the gods. The primary god of ancient Slavic Fig. 46. Balios and Xanthos Fig. 43. The White Horse of Uffington

160 A Wizard’s Bestiary Paganism was Svantevit, who had a sacred white horse that he rode in battle and which was kept in his temple. The behavior of the horse was read by priests and used to predict the future. In Persia, around 500 BCE, the custom for choosing a king was that the competitors would meet at an agreed-upon spot at an agreedupon time, and he whose horse whinnied first would be named king. Darius’s groom ensured his succession by taking his stallion to that place the night before and showing him a mare in heat. The next day, when the stud arrived, he whinnied for the mare and won Darius the throne. Similar to the stories of the Russian Humpbacked Pony and the Five-Colored Horse of Spain, the Chinese story of the Good Luck/Bad Luck Horse concerns a crooked little grey horse with no eyes originally created by a lonely boy with the help of a compassionate Wizard. The wish-fulfilling equine is granted a charm of unfathomable goodness. Originally called Bad Luck Horse, he is ridden, together with his mate, No Good Mare, by his best friend, Wa Tung, to the beginning of a war. Then, as the horses on both sides of the river line up for the big battle, the odd little horse transforms into a beautiful flying white steed with rainbow hoofs and soars across the river, where he negotiates with the enemy’s horses. Next, he flies back across to negotiate with his own side’s horses. All the horses on both sides bolt, carrying their riders into the river and ‘round and ‘round until the whole thing becomes such a mess that everyone, even the leaders, burst out laughing and the war is called off.17 Kourkig of Sasun was the magickal talking and flying marine horse that originally came from a kingdom at the bottom of a lake and assisted his divine riders—Sanasar, Mher, and David, three generations of primal Armenian heroes. Kourkig carried his riders in their quests to slay Dragons and retrieve magick gemstones, as well as other feats, and he advised the grandson, David, to drink from the milk fountain of his father when he was wandering and delirious. The milk was soma, the drink of the gods, and David’s power was restored. Sometimes horses don’t have to talk as Mr. Ed or Francis the Mule do in order to change the future. Doomstead is a magickal grey horse that transports the veiled maiden Skuld, the norn of the future, on her rides with the Valkyries. Doomstead, who is named for the home of the norns, aids Skuld’s choice of heroes to claim. The Prophetic Horses from Revelation were described by St. John in his biblical vision representing the future. The Red Horse represents war, the Black Horse represents famine, the Pale Horse is death, and the White Horse is conquest. There are also several monstrous horse hybrids—locust-scorpion-horses and fire-breathing lion-horses— that emerge from the pit to terrorize the future world. Fig. 37. The Four Horsem*n of the Apocalypse The point of so many of these divine—or divining—horse tales is not so much that the animals spoke. Rather, it was that they were so much more intelligent and sensible than their owners and all the other people around them. If only Achilles had listened to Xanthos… Monster Movies: Wonder-Horses Fantasia (animated-1940)—Pegasi ; Francis the Talking Mule movie series (1948-52); Darby O’Gill and the Little People (1959)—Phooka, Spectral coach horses; Clash of the Titans (1981)—Pegasus; High Spirits (1988)—Phooka; The Adventures of Baron Munchauen (1989)—Heroic Horse; Wyrd Sisters (animated-BBC-1996)—Death’s Pale Horse (Binky); Soul Music (animated-BBC-1997)—Death’s Pale Horse; Sleepy Hollow (1999)—Demon Horse; Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)—Heroic Horse; Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003)—Heroic Horse; Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2007)—Pegasi; Hogfather (BBC-2006)—Death’s Pale Horse; Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)—Spectral coach horses (Thestrals) Fig. 36. Good Luck Horse

Creatures of Night 161 ATTLE WERE FIRST DOMESTICATED IN the early Neolithic Age, around 9,000 years ago, becoming the first animals to be raised for food. The earliest known cattle ranchers were the Anatolians of Asia Minor (now Turkey). Herds of cattle soon became equated with wealth, and they are still so regarded throughout the world. Indeed, the very term cattle comes from Latin caput (“head”), and originally meant “unit of livestock,” which is why we still refer to so many “head” of cattle. Other terms deriving from this root are chattel (property) and capital (wealth). Fig. 1. Bull heads excavated from Çatal hüyük in the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara. Adult female cattle are called cows, and adult males are bulls. The young are calves. These terms also apply to other animals, such as buffalo, elephants, and whales. A young female before she has calved is a heifer. A young male is a bullock, which, along with steer, is also the term for a castrated male. A steer used as a draft animal (as in pulling a plough or cart) is called an ox (plural oxen). If it was castrated as an adult, however, it is called a stag. The adjective that applies to cattle is bovine, from Latin bovis. 1But along with domestic cattle, the biological subfamily Bovinae includes two dozen species of medium-to-large ungulates, including Bison, Water Buffalo, Yaks, and four-horned and spiral-horned antelopes.2 But with all this terminology, there is a remarkable omission: there is no common, nongender-specific, singular term for the animal itself. For instance, we have equivalent terms for equines: a male is a stallion, a female is a mare, a castrated male is a gelding, and so on. But generically we can still refer to a horse. For cattle, there is no equivalent to “horse.” The progenitor of all domestic cattle was the mighty European Aurochs (Bos primigenius). It is called the Urus in medieval bestiaries, where it is described as an ox-like animal the size of a large bull, having huge, saw-tooth horns with which it cuts down trees. When the Urus drank seawater, it became disoriented, stabbing the ground or entangling its horns in trees, and could be easily captured. Sadly, the last known Aurochs, a female, died in 1627 in the Jaktorów Forest of Poland. 6. Holy Cows and Sacred Bulls By Oberon Zell-Ravenheart An old cowpoke went ridin’ out one dark and windy day, Upon a ridge he rested as he went along his way, When all at once a mighty herd of red-eyed cows he saw, Plowin’ through the ragged skies and up a cloudy draw. Their brands were still on fire and their hooves were made of steel, Their horns were black and shiny and ther hot breath he could feel. A bolt of fear went through him as they thundered through the sky, For he saw the riders comin’ hard and heard their mournful cry: Yippee-yi-ay-ay, yippee-yi-yo-oh! Ghost riders in the sky! —Johnny Cash, Ghost Riders in the Sky Fig. 3. Aurochs Fig. 2. Domestic cow Ian Daniels

162 A Wizard’s Bestiary Biblical scriptures and legends often refer to a gigantic wild ox called the Re’em. There was said to be only one pair at a time, living at opposite ends of the Earth. After 70 years apart, they would come together for one day, and after mating, the female would kill the male. After 12 years of gestation, the female would bear twins, a male and a female, herself dying in childbirth. And then the cycle would repeat. The Re’em is mentioned nine times in the Old Testament: in Job 39:9-10; Deuteronomy 33:17; Numbers 23:22, 24:8; Psalms 22:21, 29:6, 92:10; and Isaiah 34:7. Although this word was mistranslated as “Unicorn” in the King James Bible, the animal intended was, of course, the Aurochs. Cattle became supremely important to the emergence of Bronze Age civilizations in Anatolia, India, Crete, Egypt, and the British Isles. These cultures venerated sacred bulls and cows, and even adopted the social model of their livestock, with powerful men accumulating large harems of women and even larger numbers of castrated eunuchs. In the book of Exodus, an idol of a golden calf (representing the Apis Bull of Egypt) leads to the first recorded massacre of heretics, as Moses orders the slaughter of its worshippers. Interestingly, the Bronze Age of cattle prominence was also the Zodiacal Age of Taurus the Bull. And an ox also appears as one of the 12 signs of the Chinese Zodiac, which otherwise bears no resemblance to the Western version. Cosmic Cows In Hinduism, cows are considered to be particularly sacred. The cow symbolizes abundance, the sanctity of all life, and the bountiful Mother Earth, who gives much while asking nothing in return. Hindus respect the cow as a maternal figure both for her gentleness and for providing nurturing milk and milk products for a basically vegetarian diet. Hindus do not exactly worship cows, yet these placid animals hold an honored place in their society, and few Hindus eat beef.1 Fig. 4. Nagpur Cow Protection League (1890) In Hindu mythology, Aditi or Surabhi (“Fragrant Rain”) is the primordial cosmic cow that brings forth and nourishes every living thing. It is her milk in the great Sea of Milk (the Milky Way) that is churned by the gods to create the world. Kama-Dhenu, the great Cosmic Cow of Plenty, is a child of the sun-goddess Rohini. She was born during the Churning of the Ocean of Milk, from which many things were created in the manner of butter. Her great udders produce an endless supply of milk that nourishes all beings. She also grants wishes. And the world itself is supported upon the enormous horns of an immense white cosmic cow named Dhol (or Dhaul). As in India, cows often figure in creation myths as bringing forth gods, humans, and other creatures— and nourishing them with their abundant milk. In Egyptian mythology, Mehturt or Mehet-Weret (“Great Flood”) is the primoridial cosmic cow-goddess and mother of Ra, the sun-god. She represents the heavenly river (the Milky Way) upon which the solar barque sails across the sky. In Persian mythology, Gush Urvan (also Gosh, GMshkurkn, or GMshkurvan) is a vast cosmic cow that contains the seeds of all plants and animals. She grazes upon the barren Earth for 3,000 years, until she is killed by Mithra. From her body emerges a pair of cattle plus 282 pairs of other animals, and from her legs arise 65 species of vegetation. In one later version of the myth, however, she is a bull. And in the Norse creation myth, an immense cow named Audumbla is the second being after the giant Ymir to appear from the melting ice of Niflheim. Her milk feeds Ymir, and her licking of the ice reveals the first gods. Fig. 6. Audumbla licking Odin free of the ice (Tracy Swagler) Glas Ghaibhlann (or Glass Ghaighlaann, “grey, white-loined cow”) is a great magickal cow of Scottish and Irish folklore. Owned by the smith god Goibniu, she is pale grey with green spots, and gives an endless supply of milk. She often stays with poor families to assist them, until a fool strikes her, or she is Fig. 5. Vishnu Churning the Ocean of Milk

Creatures of Night 163 Fig. 8. Womb and fallopian tubes as a bull-head milked into a leaky bucket, at which point she departs. When speaking of a particularly fertile field, it is still sometimes said that “the Grey Cow slept here.” Dun (brown) cows figure prominently in a number of legends and folktales of the British Isles. The Dun Cow of Warwick is an enormous magickal cow from 10th-century Shropshire. The stone circle on Staple Hill was used as a corral for her, and she provided perpetual milk for local giants and others. But a skeptical old crone produced a sieve to test her, and, furious at this insult, the cow became a rampaging monster and was eventually killed on Dunsmore Heath by Sir Guy of Warwick. One of the cow’s alleged horns was displayed at Warwick Castle for generations, but was probably the tusk of an elephant or fossil mammoth. Another Dun Cow features in Book of the Dun Cow, a 7th-century collection of tales of the Irish epic hero Cuchulainn. The legend of the founding of Durham Cathedral in County Durham, northeast England, also involves a Dun Cow. As the story goes, a band of monks was fleeing Viking incursions in 995 CE, transporting the sacred remains of the 7th-century saint, Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, in search of a safe haven. It is said that they followed two milkmaids who were searching for their lost Dun Cow. The trail led onto a peninsula formed by a loop in the River Wear, and there was the cow, lying down. The monks set down Cuthbert’s coffin and were unable to lift it again. This was taken as sign that the new shrine should be built on that very spot.1 Fig. 7. Legend of the Dun Cow of Durham Sacred Bulls The sacred bull of the Hattians, whose elaborate standards were found at Alaca Höyük alongside those of the sacred stag, survived in the Hurrian and Hittite mythologies as Seri and Hurri (“Day” and “Night”)—the bulls who carried the weather god Teshub on their backs or in his chariot, and who grazed on the ruins of cities.3 In ancient Mesopotamia, the bull was regarded as a lunar creature because of the crescent shape of its horns. The bucranium (“bull’s head”) symbolized the womb and fallopian tubes, which were often inscribed upon its surface. (Fig. 8) Indeed, the Egyptian word for bull, ka, also means the life-force or soul. Bull skulls were prominently displayed in temples and on altars throughout the Middle East—sometimes covered with clay in a semblance of flesh. Neolithic sanctuaries in Çatalhöyük in eastern Anatolia (Turkey), Crete, and Cyprus featured bull-horned stone altars, and masks made of bull skulls were worn in fertility rites. The legend of the Cretan Minotaur may very well have been inspired by these ritual costumes. In Greek myth, the Minotaur (“Bull of Minos”) is a ferocious monster with the body of a powerful man and the head of a carnivorous bull. Called Asterion, he is the hideous, cannibalistic offspring of Crete’s Queen Pasiphaeë and a beautiful white bull that King Minos refuses to sacrifice to Zeus. The queen’s unnatural lust for the bull is inflicted as divine punishment for the offense. Minos keeps Asterion in an underground maze called the labyrinth, designed by the brilliant architect Daedalus (best known for fabricating wax and feather wings for himself and his son, Icarus) specifically to imprison the beast. Minos feeds Asterion on tributory sacrifices of Athenian youths (seven boys and seven girls every nine years) until the hero Theseus (aided by princess Ariadne, who gives him a ball of thread to lay down as a trail) enters the labyrinth and slays the monster. But even before he faces the fearsome bull-man, Theseus must capture the ancient and sacred Marathonian Bull, 26 miles outside of Athens. And famous Fig. 10. Bull-leaping fresco from Knossos, Crete Fig. 9. Minotaur by Joe Butt

164 A Wizard’s Bestiary frescoes adorning the walls of Crete’s Knossos necropolis depict athletic youths of both sexes catapulting over charging bulls by grasping their horns. (Fig. 10) Crete is also the place where all-father Zeus, in the guise of a magnificent white bull, brings the Phoenician princess Europa, after arising from the sea and abducting her from her homeland across the waves. Their children become the Europeans, and the constellation of Taurus the Bull commemorates this myth. In the ancient Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, Gugalana (or Gudanna) is Anu’s monstrous Bull of Heaven. Gugalana is the first husband of the Goddess of the Underworld, Ereshkigal, and his poisonous breath can kill 200 warriors. Anu sends him to plague the city of Uruk as punishment for King Gilgamesh having rejected the advances of his daughter, the goddess Inanna. Gilgamesh and his companion, Enkidu the wild man, fight and butcher him, but in retaliation Anu causes Enkidu to sicken and die. This is another reference to the constellation Taurus and the precession of the Equinoxes. A similar myth involving the slaying of the great Bull of Heaven (the constellation Taurus) forms the basis of Mithraism—a widespread cult throughout the Roman Empire that was the primary competition for early Christianity in the 2nd–4th centuries CE. A representation of the tauroctony (“killing of the bull”) was depicted in every Mithraeum (temple). This is another reference to the precession of the Equinoxes and the transition of the vernal equinoctial sun from Taurus to Aries around 2300 BCE. 4 Some historians have suggested that the sport of bullfighting in Spain and southern France originated in this cult. In the depiction [of the tauroctony], Mithras, wearing a Phrygian cap and pants, slays the bull from above. A serpent that symbolizes the earth and a dog drink from the bull’s open wound, and a scorpion attacks the bull’s testicl*s sapping the bull for strength. Typically, a raven or crow is also present, and sometimes also a goblet and small lion. Cautes and Cautopates, the celestial twins of light and darkness, are torch-bearers, standing on either side with their legs crossed, Cautes with his brand pointing up and Cautopates with his turned down. Above Mithras, the symbols for Sol and Luna are present in the starry night sky. The scene seems to be astrological in nature. It has been proposed by David Ulansey that the tauroctony is a symbolic representation of the constellations…the bull is Taurus, the snake Hydra, the dog Canis Major, the crow or raven Corvus, the goblet Crater, the lion Leo, and the wheatblood for the [red] star Spica. The torch-bearers may represent the two equinoxes.... Mithras himself could also be associated with Perseus, whose constellation is above that of the bull.5 Egyptian mythology includes several sacred bulls. Most important is certainly Apis(also Hap, or Greek, Epaphus), a gigantic black bull sacred to the creatorgod Ptah. He was shown bearing a solar disk between his horns, with a white square or triangle on his face, a scarab under his tongue, and a white eagle upon his back. As the embodiment of Ptah and later Osiris, Apis was represented in Memphis by a living bull that bore certain sacred markings, and whose mother had been struck by lightning. The bull was housed in the temple for its lifetime, and, upon death, was mummified and entombed in a giant sarcophagus at Zaqqara, city of the dead. Fig. 11. Taurus the bull Fig. 12. Gilgamesh and the Bull of Heaven Fig. 14. Apis bull Fig. 13. Mithras slaying the Bull of Heaven. Marble group in the British Museum.

Creatures of Night 165 Another Egyptian sacred bull is Merwer (also Mnevis, Greek, Menius, or “Bull of Meroe”), herald and avatar of the sun god Atum-Ra. Similar to Apis, he was represented at Heliopolis by a magnificent living bull that was mummified upon its death. Buchis (Greek, “Bull”; also Bukhe, Bukhe See) is another great bull in Egyptian mythology, sacred to the god Menthu at his temple at Hermonthis. His hair grows backwards, and changes color every hour of the day. Other Mythic Bulls Aatxe—A terrifying red bull in the Basque folklore of Spain. Dwelling among the canyons, caves, and gorges of the Pyrenees Mountains, he comes out on stormy nights to harass travelers. His younger self is called Aatxegorri. He is the nemesis of all Unicorns in Peter Beagle’s fantasy novel and movie, The Last Unicorn (1968). His mate is Beigorri, a crimson cow. Apres—A Heraldic bull with a short tail similar to that of a bear. Fig. 16 Apres Donn of Cuálgne (also Donn Tarbh, “Brown Bull”)— The gigantic, magickal bull of the Irish national epic, the Tain bó Cuáilgne (“The Cattle Raid of Cooley”), in which it is said that: “50 youths engaged in games on his fine back, finding room every evening to play draughts and engage in riotous dancing.” He screened 100 warriors “from heat and cold under his shadow and shelter,” and “his musical lowing every evening as he returned to his shed and byre was music enough and delight enough for a man in the north and south and in the west and in the middle of the cantered of Cooley.” His lowing alone was enough to put all the cows that heard him in calf. HadhayMsh (also Hadhayoshi or Sarsaok)—A mighty ox in the Zoroastrian mythology of ancient Persia, that carried the first humans over the primal ocean. At the time of the Frashkart—the ending of all things—its fat will be used to create an elixir of immortality, called haoma, for the resurrection of the righteous. Itherther—In the mythology of the Kabyl people of Algeria, a titanic, primal buffalo whose seed engenders all the wild animals of the Earth. Kudan—A kind of inverted Minotaur, Kudan is a human-headed bull from Japanese folklore, with three eyes on each side of its body and horns down its back. He always speaks truth and is sought out as an oracle of things to come. Kujata—The vast and mighty bull in Moslem myth that sits astride the cosmic fish Baharmut. On his back, Kujata bears a gigantic, glowing ruby as well as the angel who carries the Earth on his shoulders. Kujata is said to have 4,000 eyes, 4,000 ears, 4,000 mouths, 4,000 nostrils, and 4,000 legs! Nandi—In Hindu mythology, a gigantic, milk-white bull that is the steed of the god Shiva, the leader of the Ganas, and the protector of all animals. His consort is the cow Nandini. Fig. 18. Nandi bull And finally, we must include Babe, the giant ox companion of legendary logger Paul Bunyan. Babe was born white, but he turned blue under the snow of the Winter of Blue Snows. He was 93 hands high, and Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes were created when his huge footprints filled up with water. Babe would eat 30 bales of hay as a snack (with baling wire intact!). But he died after eating all the pancakes in camp—including the burning stove they were being grilled on. The Dakota Badlands are the mound that Paul raised over his grave. Monster Movies: Taurines The Last Unicorn (animated—1968): The Red Bull; Time Bandits (1981): Minotaur; Tall Tale (1994): Babe the Blue Ox; Hercules in the Maze of the Minotaur (TV— 1994); Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005): Minotaur; Minotaur (2006). Fig. 15. Merwer Fig. 17. Kudan

166 A Wizard’s Bestiary 7. The Piasa and the Manticore By Oberon Zell-Ravenheart The Manticore is equally appealing, He jumps about and has a prickly tail. Three rows of teeth and two superb mustaches, You’ll find him leaping over hill and dale. —Barbara Wersba (1932–) The Land of Forgotten Beasts Covered with scales, and so Long A tail that it winds all around the Body, passing above the head and going back between the legs, ending in a Fish’s tail. Green, red, and black are the three Colors composing the Picture. Moreover, these 2 monsters are so well painted that we cannot believe that any savage is their author; for good painters in France would find it difficult to reach that place Conveniently to paint them. Here is approximately The shape of these monsters, As we have faithfully Copied It.2 Fig. 2. Piasa from Fr. Marquette’s diary Interestingly, the creature depicted by Fr. Marquette is wingless. Created long before the arrival of any European explorers in that area, the so-called Piasa petroglyph was probably actually a representation of the Underwater Panther, a powerful and usually malevolent creature appearing in the mythology of several native traditions, particularly in the Great Lakes region. These monsters combine features of sevFig. 1. “The Manticora Monster of Tartary,” 17th century The Piasa ALLED “ONE OF THE MOST HAUNTED towns in America,” Alton, Illinois, is about 12 miles north of St. Louis, situated between the mouths of the Missouri and Illinois Rivers, on the east bank of the mighty Mississippi featured in the stories of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. But Alton is also the home of a deeper and more ancient legend—and an intriguing monster of mystery. Writing in 1836, Professor John Russell of Bluffdale, Illinois, described the perpendicular bluffs and cliffs, rising to a height of 100 feet, that bordered the river’s edge: In descending the river to Alton, the traveler will observe, between that town and the mouth of the Illinois, a narrow ravine through which a small stream discharges its waters into the Mississippi. This stream is the Piasa (pronounced Pi-a-saw). Its name is Indian, and signifies, in the Illini language, “The bird which devours men.” Near the mouth of this stream, on the smooth and perpendicular face of the bluff, at an elevation which no human art can reach, is cut the figure of an enormous bird, with its wings extended. The animal which the figure represents was called by the Indians the Piasa. From this is derived the name of the stream.1 This now-famous petrograph had been first reported in 1673 by Father Jacques Marquette, who was recording his famous journey down the Mississippi River with Louis Joliet. Here is the entry from Fr. Marquette’s diary: While Skirting some rocks, which by Their height and length inspired awe, We saw upon one of them two painted monsters which at first made Us afraid, and upon Which the boldest savages dare not Long rest their eyes. They are as large As a calf; they have Horns on their heads Like those of a deer, a horrible look, red eyes, a beard Like a tiger’s, a face somewhat like a man’s, a body

Creatures of Night 167 eral animals: the body and tail of a mountain lion, the horns of a deer or bison, scales of a snake, feathers of a bird, and other parts as well. One variant, MichiPichoux, figured in the folklore of the Cree Indians of eastern Canada, where it dwelled among the islands of the St. Lawrence River. It was described by French priest Fr. Louis Nicholas in his Histoire Naturelle (1675) as a hairy, tiger-like beast more than 18 feet long, with huge, clawed feet and a paddle tail like a beaver’s. Its enormous head had fangs more than 2 feet long, and it preyed upon humans, especially children. Fig. 3. Underwater Panther (Ojibwa petrograph), from Lake Superior Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada Moreover, it seems that the term Piasa is actually from the Miami-Illinois word páyiihsa—supernatural dwarfs that attack travelers—and has no meaning of “man-eating bird.”3 The petrograph was noted subsequently by LaSalle and other 17th-century French explorers. Additional sightings were reported in the early 19th century, and a sketch was made in 1825 by William Dennis, who labeled it as a “Flying Dragon.” In 1841 the “Piasa Bird” was included in a lithograph by John Casper Wild, and in 1846, the petrograph was sketched by Henry Lewis for a collection of lithographs published in 1854. In 1847, Swiss artist Rudolf Friederick Kurz described the image as “a colossal eagle.”4 In his 1836 article titled “The Bird That Devours Men,” Russell referred to the “Piasa Bird” for the first time. He also related a legend, much of which he apparently invented, which became the widely accepted explanation of the petrograph. The legend of the Piasa, according to Russell, is that long, long ago there lived a terrible bird so vast that he could carry off grown men, swooping down upon them unexpectedly and bearing them off to his inaccessible caves in the cliff to be devoured. Hundreds of warriors attempted to vanquish him, but without success. His depredations depopulated entire villages, and all the tribes were in woe. Finally, following a vision from the Great Spirit, Ouatogo, the great chief of the Illini, selected 20 of his bravest warriors and concealed them in ambush. Standing in open view as a willing sacrifice for his people, Ouatago chanted the death chant as the great bird plunged toward its victim. But moments before the deadly claws could strike, 20 arrows were shot into the monster’s body. Uttering a fearful scream of pain and rage, the mighty raptor died without touching the courageous chief. To commemorate this great victory, the image of the Piasa was carved and painted upon the face of the bluff, below the caves where the bird had taken his victims. And forever after, every Indian passing by that spot in his canoe would fire arrows (and later, guns) at the effigy. Indeed, in 1836, Russell said, “The marks of the balls on the rock are almost innumerable.” Fig. 4. The Piasa on the cliff face, by Henry Lewis, 1846 In March of that year, led by “an intelligent guide, who carried a spade,” Russell claimed to have made the arduous climb over the perpendicular face of the 150-foot cliff to reach a cave, about 50 feet above the surface of the river, which was attributed in legend to be one of those where the Piasa had carried his victims. Clambering with great difficulty through the opening, he found himself in a cavern about 20 by 30 feet wide, with a vaulted ceiling at least 20 feet high. Astonished, he said that “the floor of the cavern throughout its whole extent was one mass of human bones. Skulls and other bones were mingled in the utmost confusion. To what depth they extended I was unable to decide; but we dug to the depth of 3 or 4 feet in every part of the cavern, and still we found only bones. The remains of thousands must have been deposited there.” 5 Tragically, the entire cliff, petrographs, cavern, and alleged bones were dynamited into oblivion only 11 years later in 1847, when the property was purchased by a limestone quarry. In 1882, although he had never seen the original image, Professor William McAdams, an Illinois State geologist, drew an imaginative illustration of the Piasa Bird. Based on this drawing, a full-color life-size reconstruction of the image of the Piasa was eventually created, and it may be seen today hanging on a wall of the old quarry near its original location. The site has become a place of annual pilgrimage by local Indians in ceremonial costume.6

168 A Wizard’s Bestiary Fig. 5. The Piasa by William McAdams However, there is something odd about this modern image, which we are supposed to believe is a replica of the original. It does not particularly resemble either the original drawing in Fr. Marquette’s diary, or even the later renderings by Henry Lewis and others. Rather, it calls to mind a pen drawing from a 17thcentury bestiary manuscript, titled “The Manticora Monster of Tartary” (see Fig. 1), which would seem to be the original prototype from which McAdams’ popular Piasa image was derived. Oddly enough, no one else seems to have noticed this uncanny resemblance, and this may be the first place this connection has been brought to anyone’s attention. The Manticore Which, of course, leads us directly into the next subject of this investigation—the malevolent Manticore. Also called Martikhora, Martiora, Manticore, Mantichora, Manticory, Manticoras, Mantiquera, Mantiserra, Mancomorion, Memecoleous, Satyral, this is a ferocious, red, lion-like creature of India with the face of a man, mane of a lion, tail and stinger of a scorpion, three rows of iron teeth, and a beautiful musical voice like a trumpet or flute. Its name, in all these variations, comes from Persian Mard-khor, and means “man-eater.” The earliest historical reference to this horrific monster comes from the indefatigable Ctesias, a 5thcentury BCE Greek physician who served for 17 years in the Persian court of Darius II and Artexerxes Memnon. During that time he compiled histories and geographies of Persia and India (he never actually visited India), which formed the basis for virtually all subsequent bestiary accounts through the ages. Fig. 6. Royal Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) by Glenn Gore Ctesias’ Martikhora (changed by Aristotle to Manticora, and corrupted by later writers into other variations) is certainly based upon the Royal Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris), but it also seems to include elements of the Porcupine (Hystrix leucura). Here is his account, in full, from Indica (as preserved by Aelian): He [Ctesias] describes an animal called the martikhora, found in India. Its face is like a man’s— it is about as big as a lion, and in colour red like cinnabar. It has three rows of teeth—ears like the human—eyes of a pale-blue like the human and a tail like that of the land scorpion, armed with a sting and more than a cubit long. It has besides stings on each side of its tail, and like the scorpion, is armed with an additional sting on the crown of its head, wherewith it stings any one who goes near it, the wound in all cases proving mortal. If attacked from a distance it defends itself both in front and in rear—in front with its tail, by uplifting it and darting out the stings, like shafts from a bow, and in rear by straightening it out. It can strike to the distance of a hundred feet, and no creature can survive the wound it inflicts save only the elephant. The stings are about a foot in length and not thicker than the finest thread. The name martikora means in Greek “man-eater,” and it is so called because it carries off men and devours them, though it no doubt preys upon other animals as well. In fighting it uses not only its stings but also its claws. Fresh stings grow up to replace those shot away in fighting. These animals are numerous in India, and are killed by the natives who hunt them with elephants, from the backs of which they attack them with darts.7 Drawing on Ctesias (whose writings survived only as fragments in the works of others writers, and extracts compiled in the 9th century CE by Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople), various other authors added their own comments and elaborations to the mythology, carrying the legend of the monstrous Manticore far from its origin in the reality of the Indian tiger. In Haitian Voodoo folklore, for example, the Cigouave is a predatory monster with the body of a lion or panther and a human head; it was derived from 16th-century missionary descriptions of the Indian Manticore. Depictions of this creature also became more and more fantastic, until some scarcely resembled Fig. 7. Phrygiancapped Manticora from a 12th-century bestiary

Creatures of Night 169 any living beast at all. Later artists even added horns, udders, draconic wings, and, most curiously, a Phrygian cap (Fig. 7). A heraldic version became known as the Lympago (also Mantygr, Man-Tiger, Montegre, or Satyral). It has the body of a lion or tiger, the head of an old man, and horns. Sometimes the horns resemble those of an ox, and the feet are more like a dragon’s. The culmination of this artistic evolution is the truly bizarre representation described at the beginning of this chapter—which seems to have leapt the oceans to become finally affixed in stone in the center of America as the supposedly indigenous Piasa. “There are,” replied Apollonius, “tall stories current which I cannot believe; for they say that the creature has four feet, and that his head resembles that of a man, but that in size it is comparable to a lion; while the tail of this animal puts out hairs a cubit long and sharp as thorns, which it shoots like arrows at those who hunt it” —Philostratus (170–245 CE) The Life of Apollonius of Tyana8 Another maner of bestes there is in Ynde that ben callyd manticora; and hath visage of a man, and thre huge grete teeth in his throte. He hath eyen lyke a ghoot and body of a lyon, tayll of a Scorpyon and voys of a serpente, in such wyse that by his sweet songe he draweth to hym the peple and deuoureth them. And is more delyuerer to goo than is fowle to flee. —Willam Caxton (1422–1491) The Mirrour of the World9 Fig. 9. The terrible Manticora monster, caught in the year 1530 in the Hauberg Forest, Saxonia. From Konrad Gesner’s De Quadrupedobus Vivipari, Basle, 16th century. I saw some manthicores, a strange sort of beast: the body a lion’s, the coat red, face and ears like a man’s, and three rows of teeth closed together, like joined hands with fingers interlocked. Their tails secreted a sting like a scorpion’s; their voices were very melodious. —François Rabelais (1495–1553) Gargantua and Pantagruel10 The Manticora, (or, according to the Persians, Mantiora) a Devourer, is bred among the Indians; having a triple Row of Teeth beneath and above, and in bigness and roughness like a Lion’s; as are also his Feet; Face and Ears like a Man’s; his Tail like a scorpion’s, armed with a Sting, and sharp-pointed Quills. His Voice is like a small trumpet, or Pipe. He is so wild, that ‘tis very difficult to tame him; and as swift as an Hart. With his Tail he wounds the Hunters, whether they come before or behind him. When the Indians take a Whelp of this Beast, they bruise its Buttocks and Tail, to prevent its bearing the sharp Quills; then it is tamed without danger. —Thomas Boreman (fl.–1744) A Description of Three Hundred Animals11 Fig. 10. The man-dragon Manticora, used as a device by the printer Busdrago, Lucca, Tuscany, 1551. The spiky tail of the Manticore can probably be attributed to a confusion with the porcupine, which was (and still is) popularly believed to be able to shoot its tail quills like arrows. Perhaps more likely, one can easily imagine the appearance of a tiger whose tail has had an unfortunate encounter with a porcupine! However, it was also a common belief in India that tigers’ whiskers were poisonous quills, and natives routinely plucked them from slain specimens to prevent accidents. But one feature that remains consistent from its very earliest description by Ctesias seems inexplicable—namely, the scorpion sting with which the monster’s tail was said to terminate. However, in 1884, the Irish scholar Valentine Ball published a paper on the Manticora, which addressed this apparent anomaly. Having worked for years as a geologist in India, and later becoming director of the National Museum in Dublin, Ball’s research convinced him that nearly everything the Greek physician had reported had a factual basis.12 Fig. 8. Heraldic Lympago

170 A Wizard’s Bestiary For example, it is true that in India, tigers were hunted by princes from the backs of elephants—a custom that persisted into the 20th century. They are also notorious and feared man-eaters. And Ball attributed the “triple rows of teeth” to the distinctive three-lobed carnivore molars of tigers. As for the scorpion-like tail stinger, Ball asserted that “at the extremity of the tail of the tiger, as well as other Felidae, there is a little horny-dermal structure like a claw or nail, which I doubt not, the natives regard as analogous to the sting of the scorpion.”13 One of the greatest publishing achievements of the mid-16th century was the massive four volume Historia Animalum (1555) by Swiss naturalist Konrad Gesner (1516–1565), which included hundreds of original woodcut illustrations. Considered to be the foundation of modern zoology, this comprehensive documentation of the animal world also included a number of fabulous creatures, including the Manticore. In 1607, Edward Topsell (1572–1625) compiled an English version of Gesner’s work, which he titled The Historie of Foure-Footed Beastes. Topsell’s image of the Manticore has remained the best known and most often reproduced; and his text entry on this beast introduced yet another element into the myth— an equation with the Leucrocota, or Hyaena: Fig. 11. Topsell’s Manticora (1607) This beast or rather monster (as Ctesias writeth) is bred among the Indians, having a treble row of teeth beneath and above, whose greatness, roughness, and feet are like Lyons, his face and ears like unto a man, his eyes gray, and colour red, his tail like the tail of a Scorpion, of the earth, armed with a sting, casting forth sharp pointed quills…. This also is the same beast which is called Leucrocuta about the bigness of a wilde Ass, being in legs and Hoofs like a Hart, having his mouth reaching both sides to his ears, and the head and face of a female like unto a Badger. It is called also Martiora, which in the Persian tongue signifieth a devourer of men; and thus we conclude the story of the Hyena for her description, and her several kinds. —Edward Topsell (1572–1625) The Historie of Foure-Footed Beastes14 The Leucrocota (Greek, “White Wolf-Dog”) that Topsell mentions was an Ethiopian animal first described by Pliny the Elder in his Historia Naturalis (77 CE). He said it was the size of a donkey, “with cloven hooves, the haunches of a stag, the neck and tail of a lion, the head of a badger, and a mouth that extends to the ears; it imitates the sound of the human voice.” Later writers called it Crocotta, Corocotta, Crocotte, Crocuta, Curcrocute, Cynolycus, Leucrota, Rosomacha, Akabo, Alazbo, Zabo, and Lupus Vesperitinus. It was said to be an ass-sized dog-wolf of India with a leonine body, deerlike legs with cloven hooves, and a humanlike voice with which it lured its victims. Instead of teeth, it had bony jaws to crush its prey, which it then swallowed whole. It had to turn its entire head to focus its immobile eyes. Ctesias had referred to this creature as the Cynolycus, “Dog-Wolf.” Also called Yena, Akabo, Alzabo, Zabo, Ana, and many other names, it is the animal we know as the Hyaena (Crocuta crocuta), but confused with elements of the antelope. We can see the entire story come full circle in the description of the Rompo, a nocturnal scavenger beast from India and Africa that feeds on human corpses. It was said to have a long body and tail, the head of a hare, the ears of a man, a mane of hair, the forefeet of a badger, and the hind feet of a bear. These habits and the description clearly identify it as the hyaena, and yet some are also reminiscent of the Manticore. I believe the final connection between these two animals may be found in the Striped Hyena (Hyaena hyaena), whose distinctive coat patterns are similar to those of the tiger. There is one last footnote to this fascinating history. Peter Costello reports that André Thévet, writing in 1571, described a personal encounter with a Manticore: “When I traveled on the Red Sea, some Indians arrived from the mainland…and they brought along a monster of the size and proportions of a tiger without a tail, but the face was that of a well-formed man.”15 Costello suggests that this “Manticore” was probably an anthropoid ape, but none of the great apes or baboons are indigenous to India, and it is impossible to determine from this description what species it may have been. Fig. 13. Striped Hyaena Fig. 12. Leucrocota by Merian (1718)

Creatures of Night 171 also the seal of Phoenix, Arizona, the 5th largest city in the U.S., and which sits atop the ruins of the former Hohokam city. The Phoenix was also said to regenerate when hurt or wounded by a foe, thus making it invincible and virtually immortal—an appropriate symbol of fire and divinity. In a Greek version of the myth, the Phoenix lived in Arabia next to a well. At dawn, she bathed in the water of the well, and the Greek sun-god, Apollo, stopped his chariot (the sun) in order to listen to her song.1 In alchemical symbolism, the Phoenix corresponds to the color red, the regeneration of universal life, and the successful completion of a process. According to the Stoics, the universe itself is born in fire, dies in fire, and is reborn in an eternal cycle. The Phoenix is but a microcosmic reflection of this cosmology. History of the Legend The word phoenix (often spelled fenix in medieval bestiaries) means “purple or crimson one,” from the Greek phoeniceus, meaning “reddish-purple.” In various depictions, she resembles a flame-colored synthesis of an eagle, a peaco*ck, and a pheasant. Her Fig. 2. The Phoenix emblem attached to the eight trams built in Brisbane Australia, from material salvaged from trams destroyed in the Paddington tram depot fire. Fig. 1. Phoenix crest of the University of Chicago Flyers 8.The Fiery Phoenix By Oberon Zell-Ravenheart How many creatures walking on this earth Have their first being in another form? Yet one exists that is itself forever, Reborn in ageless likeness through the years. It is that bird Assyrians call the Phoenix, Nor does she eat the common seeds and grasses, But drinks the juice of rare, sweet-smelling herbs. When she has done five hundred years of living She winds her nest high up a swaying palm— And delicate dainty claws prepare her bed Of bark and spices, myrrh and cinnamon— And dies while incense lifts her soul away. Then from her breast—or so the legend runs— A little Phoenix rises over her, To live, they say, the next five hundred years. When she is old enough, in hardihood, She lifts her crib (which is her mother’s tomb) Midair above the tall palm wavering there And journeys toward the City of the Sun, Where in Sun’s temple shines the Phoenix nest. —Ovid (43 BCE–17 CE), The Metamorphoses HE LEGEND OF THE PHOENIX HAS GIVen rise to one of the most powerful and empowering metaphors in all of human history—that of miraculous resurrection or rebirth following total destruction. The phrase “rising from the ashes” is applied to everything from the rebuilding of cities that have been leveled by war or natural calamities, to personal recovery from a devastating tragedy or illness. Even sports teams that achieve victory after a season of defeats are said to rise from the ashes. In medieval times, the Phoenix was adopted by Christians as a symbol of the resurrection and immortality of the soul, and the eternal-life-after-death of Jesus Christ. The Phoenix was a heraldic badge of Queen Elizabeth I (1533–1603). It appears also on the city flags and seals of the American cities of Atlanta, Georgia (torched in the Civil War), Lawrence, Kansas (burnt by Confederate raiders), San Francisco, California (destroyed by earthquake and fire in 1906), and Portland, Maine (destroyed four times by fire), to symbolize these cities’ rebirths from the ashes. It is Ian Daniels

172 A Wizard’s Bestiary legend was spread by the ancient Phoenician traders (taking their name from the distinctive royal purple dye which they derived from the purple murex snails, Murex brandaris and Murex trunculus), who sailed throughout the world for centuries before their defeat by the Romans during the Punic Wars, with the coup de grace delivered by Julius Caesar in 50 BCE. The earliest known mention of the Phoenix is by the Greek poet Hesiod (8th century BCE), who implies that the Phoenix is already very well-known, and that it lives for a very long time.2 Ionian historian Hecataeus of Miletus (6th–5th century BCE) also described the fabled bird, but unfortunately only fragments survive of his Periegesis (“A Journey Around the World”). The most detailed early account comes from the Greek historian Herodotus (484–425 BCE), who claimed to have received it from Egyptian priests in Heliopolis. In the second book of his History, he notes that he did not see the bird himself, and is skeptical of the story. He states that “its size and appearance, if it is like the pictures, are as follows: The plumage is partly red, partly golden, while the general make and size are almost exactly like that of the eagle.” 3 In his Natural History, Pliny the Elder (23 BCE– 79 CE) says the Phoenix “is as big as an eagle, and has a gleam of gold around its neck and all the rest of it is purple, but the tail which is blue picked out with rosecolored feathers and the throat picked out with tufts, and a feathered crest adorning its head.” According to the legend, the Phoenix (of which there is only ever one) comes from Ethiopia, where every 500 years, at the end of her life-cycle, she lays a single egg in a nest she builds of cinnamon and frankincense atop the tallest Date Palm tree (Phoenix dactylifera). Then she sits upon the egg and sings a song of indescribable beauty at the dawn of the day. As the burning rays of the rising sun heat the flammable nest, she fans it with her wings until it bursts into flames, consuming her in self-immolation. Nine days later, when the egg, warmed by the glowing embers, hatches, she is reborn amid the ashes. Manius Manilius (Roman Consul, 149 BCE) dispenses with the egg, avowing that the reincarnated bird miraculously coalesces out of the ashes, appearing at first like a little caterpillar, which then metamorphoses into an adult bird.5 When she attains her full plumage, the resurrected Phoenix gathers up the ashen remains of her parent and former incarnation, plasters them into a hollowed-out ball of myrrh, and wraps the whole thing into an egg-shaped bundle tightly bound in aromatic leaves. She flies with this packet to Egypt, followed at a respectful distance by a contingent of other birds. There she deposits it on the altar of Ra, the sun-god, in his temple at Heliopolis (“City of the Sun”). This event was celebrated in Egypt with major festivities, and was heralded as the beginning of a new era. Like the Phoenix, the Arabian Cynamolgus, or “Cinnamon Bird,” was also said to bring cinnamon from afar to built its fragrant nest at the top of a tall palm tree, where spice gatherers would then shoot it down with leaden arrows. It was claimed that this was how cinnamon was obtained. Cycles of Resurrection Manilius stated that the period of the 540-yearlong astronomical Great Year coincided with the life cycle of the Phoenix, with its last appearance in 215 AUC (Anno urbis conditae—”year of the founding of the city,” that is, Rome—traditionally set in 753 BCE). By our present reckoning, then, that appearance would have been in 538 BCE. Cornelius Tacitus (55–120 CE) says in The Annals that Phoenixes flew into Heliopolis successively during the reigns of Pharaohs Sesostris, Amasis, and Ptolemy III of the Macedonian dynasty, but he does not give specific years. He notes, however, that the interval between the last two appearances was less than the traditional 500 years, and suspects that the last sighting was spurious: 6 Sesostris III (Khakhaure) ruled Egypt from 1878 to 1843 BCE. Amasis reigned from 570 to 526 BCE (right on the mark for the 538 BCE appearance, but 1,300 years after Sesostris, not 500). Ptolemy III held the throne from 246 to 221 BCE (only 300 years after Amasis). Although 500 years is the period given by Herodotus, and 540 by Manilius, other accounts indicate cycles of 1,000, 1,461, 1,700, or even 12,994 years. Using 538 BCE as a starting point, past and future appearances can be shown in the following chart: Fig. 3. Classic Phoenix Fig. 5. Phoenix from Lycothenes’ Prodigiorum as Ostentorum Chronicon Fig. 4. Phoenix

Creatures of Night 173 500 yrs 540 yrs 1,000 yrs 1,461 yrs 1,700 yrs 1038 1078 1538 1999 2238 538 BCE 538 BCE 538 BCE 538 BCE 538 BCE 462 CE 2 CE 462 CE 923 CE 1162 CE 962 542 1462 2384* 2862* 1462 1082 2462* 1962 1622 2462* 2162* So if you are wondering when the Phoenix is next due to reappear on the Earth, you can take your pick of the years marked with an asterisk. Personally, having been there, I’d opt for 1962 as the “Year of the Phoenix.” Or, we can conclude from the historical record that the schedule isn’t all that precise, and the Phoenix is due any moment! The Phoenix in Other Lands The Orient has its own Phoenix, known in China as the Fêng Huang (“Red Bird”). Frequently depicted in oriental art, the Fêng is male and the Huang is female; together the pair symbolizes everlasting love, high virtue, yin and yang, and the primordial force of the heavens. This beautiful bird is said to stand about nine feet tall. It has the breast and sinuous neck of a swan, the head and comb of a pheasant, the face of a swallow, the back of a tortoise, and the 12-feathered tail of a peaco*ck. This descriptions fits remarkably well the rare Ocellated Pheasant, or Rheinart’s Crested Argus (Rheinarta ocellata), found in central Vietnam and the Malayan peninsula. Its resplendant tail feathers may attain six feet in length!7 The form of the Fêng Huang represents the six celestial bodies, and its shimmering striped plumage displays the five fundamental colors (yellow, green, red, black, and white). Originating in the sun, it will not eat any living thing, including plants. It is one of the Ssu Ling, the Four Spiritual Creatures of China, along with the Lung Wang (Dragon), the Gui Xian (Tortoise), and the Ki-Lin (Unicorn). It stands at the South, and symbolizes the season of summer and the Element of Fire. Representing the Empress, its rare and auspicious appearance heralds good fortune, peace, and prosperity; but calamity occurs upon its departure.8 In Japan, the same creature is known as Ho-Oo—the Ho being the male aspect and the Oo being the female. Said to be the embodiment of the sun, its appearance heralds the dawn of a new era. It comes to Earth as a messenger of goodness and to do good deeds for people, after which it ascends back to heaven to await the next cycle. Like the Feng-Huang, the Ho-Oo has been adopted as a symbol of the royal family, particularly the Empress. It is supposed to represent the sun, justice, fidelity, and obedience. From Russia comes the legend of the Zshar-Ptit*a, or Firebird, with its shining feathers of gold and silver and sparkling crystal eyes. Pearls fall from its beak when it sings, and its song can heal the sick and cure blindness. A single fiery tail feather can light an entire room. It grazes in the garden of its owner, Czar Dalmet, but at night it sometimes sneaks into the nearby orchard of Czar Vyslav Anronovich to steal his golden apples of youth, beauty, and immortality. The fabled Firebird is the subject of the famous 1910 ballet score by Igor Stravinsky.9 The Kerkes of Turkish tradition lives 1,000 years and then consumes itself by fire, arising renewed to live another millennium. This cycle will repeat 7 times 7, or 49 times, until the Day of Judgment comes. The mystical tree Ababel—the “Father Tree” in the Quran—shoots out new branches and vegetation at every resurrection of the Kerkes. According to the Jewish Talmud, the Milcham was the only animal not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden, and was rewarded with the gift of immortality from the Tree of Life. It lived in a walled city for 1,000 years, at the end of which time it was consumed by fire, leaving an egg to begin a new cycle. Persian and Hindu mythology tells of the Huma, a bird of paradise that dwells in the heavens and never touches the Earth. The Huma joins both the male and female natures together in one body, each having a wing and a leg. Like the Phoenix, it consumes itself in fire every few hundred years, only to rise renewed from the ashes. A compassionate bird, it avoids killing for food, preferring instead to feed on carrion. Great blessings and good fortune come to any who see or touch it—especially if its shadow falls on them. Fig. 7. Fêng Huang Fig. 9. Firebird by Ian Daniels Fig. 11. Huma from Comestor’s Historia Scholastica, 13th century

174 A Wizard’s Bestiary Some of the fabulous birds associated with the legend of the Phoenix are gigantic, similar to the Roc of Madagascar. For example, the Angka, an enormous Arabian bird, was said to be large enough to carry off an elephant. After living for 1,700 years, it burned itself to ashes and rose again. The Arabs believed that the Angka was originally created as a perfect bird, but eventually it came to devour all the animals on Earth and carry off children. The people appealed to God, who then prevented the Angka from multiplying; thus it eventually became extinct.10 The Simurgh (meaning “30 Birds”) is the magnificent King of the Birds in Arabian legend, representing divine unity. Its beautiful feathers are prized for their healing properties. Like the Angka, it is so huge that it can carry off an elephant or a camel, but it is also known to take human children into its nest to foster them. It dwells in the mountains of Alberz in northern Persia. Like the Phoenix, this wise and peaceful bird lives for either 1,700 or 2,000 years. Some accounts claim it is immortal, nesting in the Tree of Knowledge. It is said to be so old that it has seen the destruction of the world three times over. A bird of the same name attended the Queen of Sheba. It had metallic orange feathers, a silver head, a human face, four wings, a vulture’s talons, and a peaco*ck’s tail.11 Nicolo de Conti (ca.1395–1469), a Venetian merchant who traveled for either 25 or 36 years through India, Asia, and Africa, brought back the legend of the Sevienda, which had a beak full of holes. Like the Phoenix, it was consumed by fire and then regenerated from the ashes as a little worm or caterpillar. Appearing in the Hindu epic the Ramayana, Garuda is the mystical Firebird that serves as the mount of the god Vishnu. Garuda appears as the coat of arms of the Republic of Indonesia (Garuda Pancasila).12 Sources of the Legend Was there ever a real Phoenix—or at least a living bird that gave rise to the legend? As with many other mythological creatures, the legend of the Phoenix is not a simple matter of identifying a single source or species. A number of mythic birds became absorbed into the legend as it grew, and it in turn also contributed to the legends of totally different birds in other lands. Perhaps the oldest source of the Phoenix legend is the Egyptian Benu, a heron-like bird with red legs and a crest of long feathers sweeping back from the crown of its head. The word Benu in Egyptian means both Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea) and date palm tree. The legendary Benu comes from the Isle of Fire in the Underworld and brings the Hike, the vital essence of all life. It was said to rise from its burning tree with such melodious song that even the gods were enthralled. Known from The Book of the Dead and other Egyptian texts as one of the sacred symbols of worship at Heliopolis, the Benu was associated with the rising sun and the sun-god, Ra, who was reborn each morning in the fiery dawn. It was also identified with Osiris because of its ability to resurrect itself from death.13 An East African desert bird —possibly a Sandgrouse (Pteroclidae)—has also been suggested as inspiration for the Egyptian Phoenix. Said to nest on salt flats that are too hot for its eggs or chicks to survive, it builds a mound several inches tall, laying a single egg atop that marginally cooler pedestal. The convection currents around these mounds may have resembled the turbulence of a flame. 14 Another suggested inspiration for the Phoenix, and other mythical birds closely associated with the sun, is the total solar eclipse, when the sun’s blazing corona often displays a distinctly birdlike form that almost certainly inspired the winged sun-disk symbols of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. 15 And yet another frequently noted source of the legend of the Phoenix may be found in the strange avian behavior called “anting” by Professor Erwin Stresemann of Berlin in 1935. Various perching birds will pick up ants with their beaks and rub them under their wings and over their plumage, evidently enjoying an intoxicating effect from the formic acid. In 1957, Maurice Burton undertook a study of this behavior and learned that aromatics and fire smoke were equally effective intoxicants. But the most remarkable behavior involved a tame rook named Niger, who “disported himself in a heap of burning straw”: With flames enveloping the lower part of his body and smoke drifting all around him, he flapped his wings, snatched at burning embers with his beak, and appeared to be trying to put them under his wings…. Every now and then he would pose amid the flames with his wings outstretched and his head turned to one side, looking exactly like the traditional picture of the Phoenix. 16 Fig. 12. Angka Fig. 13. Simurgh Fig. 15. Egyptian Benu

Creatures of Night 175 Fig. 17. Niger rises, Phoenix-like, from the flames The most important component of the legend may be found in the trade of Bird of Paradise skins from New Guinea, dating from 1000 BCE, when the island was first discovered by Phoenician seafarers. The most flamboyantly plumaged and abundant species, and therefore the most commonly exported, was Count Raggi’s Bird of Paradise (Paradisea raggiana), the male of which sports profuse sprays of brilliant scarlet feathers under his wings. These are activated and agitated in his courtship dance, during which it looks as though he is dancing amid flames.17 What makes this magnificent bird particularly fascinating as a source of the Phoenix legend is not just its spectacular physical appearance, but also the manner in which it was brought to Western attention in ancient Egypt and other civilizations along the Phoenician trading routes. In order to preserve the delicate skins of Birds of Paradise for their transport by sea all the way to Egypt, Phoenicia, and elsewhere, the tribespeople of New Guinea carefully embalmed them in myrrh that was molded into an egg-shaped parcel, which they then sealed in a wrapping of charred banana leaves—exactly as Herodotus described. No doubt the delivery of these precious packages to the temples in places such as Heliopolis and Tyre was also attended by considerable pomp and ceremony, heralding the return of the sacred Phoenician bird.18 The Once and Future Phoenix I suspect that there is another element of this wondrous bird that has not yet been considered—namely, an actual living creature that bears the appearance of those iconic images. Because the Phoenix, like the Unicorn, is not a continuous presence on the Earth, but only appears intermittently, a reasonable assumption is that it might have been produced artificially. The most likely prospect is a sterile hybrid of two living birds whose separate features would combine into the classic archetype. Leaving aside the various species of Birds of Paradise (see above), the Galliformes fowl are eminently suitable prospects for such a hybrid. This order of birds contains the turkeys, grouse, quails, chickens, peafowl, and pheasants, of which there are about 256 species worldwide. The entire order exhibits enormous diversity, and is distinguished by flamboyant plumage among the males, which are notoriously polygamous. The ranges of most species overlap considerably throughout Asia, and many have been domesticated for millennia. Although radically different courtship behaviors normally keep the various species from hybridizing, spontaneous hybrids are not unknown in close captivity, and intentional hybridization by breeders has produced many unique varieties.19 Among these, the male Golden Pheasant (Chrysolophus pictus) has the correct colors: iridescent flaming reds and golds. The peafowl, on the other hand, has approximately the right body shape and size, including the long neck, the head crest, and the tail feathers with their distinctive “eyes.” Whereas the iridescent colors of peaco*cks are at the opposite end of the spectrum—blues, greens, and violets—a color mutation of the Indian Blue Peafowl (Pavo cristatus) is pure white (not an albino, as many assume). A hybrid derived from a golden pheasant co*ck and a white peahen might just result in a progeny that looks exactly like the Russian Firebird. Perhaps it is time for the fabled Phoenix to return in the flesh. Now I will believe That there are unicorns; that in Arabia There is one tree, the phoenix’ throne; one phoenix At this hour reigning there. —Shakespeare, The Tempest (III.iii.27) Monster Movies: The Phoenix The immensely popular Harry Potter books and movies feature prominently a Phoenix named Fawkes belonging to Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In the film Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), the process of immolation and resurrection is dramatically shown. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2008) also features Fawkes. And in the 2005 movie The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, based on the book by C.S. Lewis, a Phoenix bursts into flame and flies low over the grass in front of the Snow Queen’s lines, creating a wall of fire to guard Peter’s retreat. Fig. 18. Count Raggi’s Bird of Paradise Fig. 20. Golden Pheasant

176 A Wizard’s Bestiary 9. Gryphons and Hippogriffs By Ash “LeopardDancer” DeKirk and Oberon Zell-Ravenheart Gryphus significat sapientiam jungendam fortitudini, sed sapientiam debere praeire, fortitudinem sequi. (The griffin represents wisdom joined to fortitude, but wisdom should lead, and fortitude follow.) —Chassaneus ERHAPS SOME OF THE MOST UNUSUAL and captivating creatures of the mythic world are the Gryphon and the Hippogriff. Like the Dragon, Unicorn, and Phoenix, they are beloved elements of universal myth and folklore. These are chimeric creatures, comprised of parts from several different animals. The Gryphon has the hind body and tail of a lion, and the head, wings, and front claws of a mighty eagle. It is usually depicted with feathery, horselike ears, or feathered “horns” like those of a great horned owl. Some Gryphons have serpents in place of the tufted lion tail, much like the traditional Chimera does. Others have a lion tail with a fan of feathers at the end. The Hippogriff has the same eagle forequarters, but with the hindquarters of a horse. Fig. 1. Gryphon by Matthaus Merian (1718) The mythological history of the Gryphon goes back more than 5,000 years, and there are many variations on its name. The word Gryphon, in every language in which it appears (French Griffon, Italian Grifo, German Greyff, English Griffin), derives from the Greek grypos (“hooked”) because of its large predatory beak. One alternate spelling, Griffin, means “to seize.” Other names include Gryph, Gryphus, and Epimacus; also Gryps or Grypes, meaning “curved, having a hooked beak.” A Japanese version of the Gryphon is called a Kirni. The Gryphon figures prominently in the art and legends of the ancient Sumerians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Chaldeans, Egyptians, Mycenaeans, Indo-Iranians, Syrians, Scythians, and Greeks. In medieval European heraldry, Gryphons are frequently represented as a symbol of eternal vigilance, and in ancient astrological iconography, they are shown pulling the chariot of the sun. Some of the earliest accounts of Gryphons come from the Egyptians. Egyptian Gryphons were portrayed with a lion’s body and a falcon’s head. Egyptian deities depicted as Gryphons included Sefer and Axex. Ancient Elamite statuary often featured Gryphons, as they considered them to be sacred beasts. In Persia, Gryphons called Homa were featured in statuary and as symbols of royalty. The Homa were considered guardians of light. Fig. 2. Oldest known representation of a Gryphon, from a cylinder seal found at Susa, Western Iran, 3,000 BCE. Fig. 3. Assyrian Gryphon, a stone carving in the Nimrod Palace at Nineveh. Ian Daniels

Creatures of Night 177 The Grecian Gryphons were even more chimeric, having the front half of an eagle and back half of a lion. They were said to build their nests within caves, laying within them three eggs roughly the size of ostrich eggs. Typically a Gryphon’s eggs resemble those of an eagle, but in some accounts the eggs resemble sapphires. And in other accounts they are actual sapphires, or even made of agate. Sometimes the mother Gryphon will place agate in the nests to protect the eggs and young. Masters of sky and Earth, Gryphons were said to have made their homes upon the Scythian Steppes, a region stretching from the modern Ukraine area all the way into Central Asia. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, writing in the 5th century BCE, Gryphons lived in an area between the Hyperboreans, the north-wind people of Mongolia, and the Arimaspians, a one-eyed tribe of Scythian horsem*n. The latter were named for the stream Arimaspias, from which Gryphons were said to take gold. The favorite prey of the Gryphon was horses, and its greatest enemies were the equestrian Arimaspians, who were continually trying to capture the vast hoard of gold guarded by the Gryphons. Both the Greek Cyclops and the Gryphons’ hatred of horses may have been derived from this legendary tribe. In the late 5th century BCE, Ctesias relocated Herodotus’ “gold-guarding Griffins” to the “high-towering mountains” of India, where they became fourfooted birds more like the later conception we know today. In his Indica, Ctesias said the Griffins “are about as large as wolves, having legs and claws like those of the lion, and covered all over the body with black feathers except only on the breast where they are red.”1 The Roman rhetorician Claudius Aelianus, or Aelian (170–235 CE), compiled a popular compendium of anecdotal animal lore, called On Animals. Here is what he has to say about Gryphons: I have heard that the Indian animal the Gryphon is a quadruped like a lion; that it has claws of enormous strength and that they resemble those of a lion. Men commonly report that it is winged and that the feathers along its back are white, and those on its front are red, while the actual wings are neither but are white. And Ctesias records that its neck is variegated with feathers of a dark blue; that it has a beak like an eagle’s, and a head too, just as artists portray it in pictures and sculptures. Its eyes, he says, are like fire. It builds its lair among the mountains, and although it is not possible to capture the full-grown animal, they do take the young ones. And the people of Bactria, who are neighbors of the Indians, say that the Gryphons guard the gold in those parts; that they dig it up and build their nests with it, and that the Indians carry off any that falls from them…while the Gryphons fearing for their young ones fight with the invaders. They engage too with other beasts and overcome them without difficulty, but they will not face the lion or the elephant.2 Gryphons were considered monogamous animals that mated for life. If their mate died, the other would remain solitary for the rest of its life, a trait that later made it a prime target for the Church as a symbolic warning against remarriage. These magnificent animals are associated with the sun and are often depicted pulling the chariot of the sun. The Gryphon is traditionally a guardian of gold, treasure, and wisdom, much like the Dragon (especially Asian dragons, in terms of wisdom). If a person dared to attempt gathering the Gryphon’s treasure, he or she would be torn to bits. Gryphon talons were supposed to be capable of detecting poison, and many alleged specimens were brought back to Europe by crusaders. These invariably turned out to be antelope horns, sold to the gullible crusaders by enterprising African traders. Giant bones from the steppes, said to be “Griffen” bones, were most likely dinosaur fossils, a possibility that makes them no less impressive. Fig. 4. Gryphon as Greek akrotrion (apex statuette) Fig. 6. Gryphon statant Fig. 5. Babylonian Gryphon from the Ishtar Gate

178 A Wizard’s Bestiary Fig. 7. Gryphon seal of Count Fredrich von Brene, Germany (1208) The Gryphon was depicted quite extensively in pottery, coinage, and statuary around the world. In ancient Greek art, bronze cauldrons were cast or molded showing stylized Gryphon heads with upright ears and gaping beaks. Some modern depictions of stone Gryphons show them with the horned heads of big cats rather than the more traditional eagle head, though they still have wings and eagle forelimbs. Gryphons were also widely used in heraldry. The heraldic Gryphon resembles the Grecian Gryphon in form (the ears distinguish it from the heraldic eagle). Heraldic Gryphons are usually shown sergeant—a term similar to rampant but used solely for Gryphons— that is, rearing up with one leg and both front claws raised. One of the earliest recorded heraldic Gryphons is that of Richard De Redvers, Earl of Exeter, and dates back to the early 1100s. A Keythong is a male Gryphon, represented in heraldic symbolism with spikes or jets of flame springing from its shoulders in place of wings. The Heliodromosis a fusion of Gryphon and vulture in medieval European lore and heraldry. It is known today as the Griffin Vulture (Gryps fulvus), found throughout southern Asia and South Africa. Similar to the heraldic Gryphon is the Opinicus, a creature found only in the world of heraldry. The Opinicus, or “False Gryphon,” looks much like the Gryphon except that it lacks a Gryphon’s distinctive ears. In addition, it has the forepaws of a lion, and the tail of a camel. Fig. 11. Opinicus The horse is generally regarded as the enemy of the Gryphon, but tales have been told of bizarre and forbidden couplings that led to the Hippogriff (or Hippogryph; Greek, “horse-gryphon”), a beast part Gryphon, part horse—the result of the impossible breeding of a mare with a male Gryphon (whose favorite food is horseflesh). The unlikely nature of this union led to the phrase “to cross Gryphons with horses,” which meant essentially the same thing as the more well-known phrase “when pigs fly,” referring to something virtually impossible. A Hippogriff has the head, wings, breast, and claws of an eagle, but the hind parts of a horse instead of a lion. Hippogriffs were able to be tamed and are featured in tales of Charlemagne, often as steeds for noble knights. A large and powerful beast that can fly faster than lightning, it appears in Ludovicio Ariosto’s epic saga Orlando Furioso (1516) as a mount for the Wizard Atlantes. Harry Potter’s godfather Sirius Black has one named “Buckbeak.” Strange Tales and True By Oberon The Gryphon, however, is no mere creation of fantasy, but is actually based on the Lämmergeier (Gypaetus barbatus, “bearded vulture”), which measures 4 feet in length with a 10-foot wingspan. A “mane” of long, ragged feathers around the bird’s head and neck has given it the popular name of “lion eagle,” an appellation which gave rise to the common depiction. The largest and most powerful of all raptors, it was the eagle of Zeus. The only member of the genus Gypaetus, the lämmergeier is intermediate between eagles and vultures. Its German name means “lamb stealer,” from its habit of carrying off lambs. The powerful but rarely seen Fig. 8. Gryphon sergeant Fig. 9. Kerythong Fig. 10. Heliodromos by Ian Daniels Fig. 12. Hippogriff Fig. 13. Lämmergeier—head

Creatures of Night 179 raptor inhabits high mountain ridges in southern Europe, Africa, India, and Tibet. It nests on mountain crags, laying one or two eggs in mid-winter which hatch at the beginning of spring. Unlike carrion vultures, the lämmergeier disdains rotting meat, living on a diet of 90 percent bone marrow. To get at this delicacy, it will drop large bones from a height to break them into smaller pieces, which earned it the old name of Ossifrage (“bone crusher”). In similar fashion, lämmergeiers will drop live tortoises onto rocks to crack them open.3 An ironic historical connection involves the Greek playwright Aeschylus (525–456 BCE), author of Prometheus Bound, in which the rebel Titan is tortured daily by having his liver devoured by the eagle of Zeus (that is, a lämmergeier). In 458, Aeschylus traveled to Sicily, staying in the city of Gela. One day, as he was pacing in his courtyard lecturing students, a lämmergeyer flew high overhead, carrying a large tortoise in its claws. Mistaking the old man’s shiny bald pate for a rock, the mighty bird dropped the tortoise on it. Thus the great playwright met his death by the very creature he had cast as the bane of his hero. And there is yet a final note to be added to the natural history of this seemingly supernatural monster. In 1991, Dr. Adrienne Mayor, a classical scholar from Princeton, New Jersey, noted that the Altai Mountains of central Asia, famous for their rich gold deposits and the locality of many ancient Gryphon legends, also contain the fossilized skeletons and eggs of a lion-sized quadrupedal dinosaur called Protoceratops (“first horn-face”), whose most distinctive feature is its strikingly eagle-like beak and head. Dating from the Cretaceous Period (136 million to 64 million years ago), if its remains had been encountered by early gold prospectors many centuries before the correct identity of dinosaurs was recognized, how would they have been explained by such people? Surely (and accurately) as the skeletons of four-footed, eagle-headed monsters—or, as we call them today, Gryphons.4 But perhaps the most remarkable coincidence that supports this dinosaurian identity for the legendary “lion-eagle” is the fact that we now understand that dinosaurs were not sluggish, lizard-like reptiles, as had been commonly believed, but active, warm-blooded creatures whose modern descendants are birds. Recently discovered, exquisitely preserved fossils from China indicate that many of them were feathered—including, quite possibly, Protoceratops! Monster Movies: Gryphons and Hippogriffs Merlin, 1998 (TV) (Gryphon) Quest for Camelot, 1998 (Gryphon) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, 2004 (Hippogriff) Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, 2005 (Gryphon) Gryphon, 2007 (TV) (Gryphon) Books featuring Gryphons and Hippogriffs Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (Gryphon) Beyond the North Wind by Gillian Bradshaw (Gryphon) Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis (Gryphon) The Crystal Gryphon by Andre Norton (Gryphon) Divine Comedy by Dante (Gryphon) Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Wies and Tracy Hickman (Gryphon) The Gryphon King by Tom Deitz (Gryphon) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling (Hippogriff) Mage War trilogy by Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon (Gryphon) Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto (Hippogriff) The Once and Future King by T.H. White (Gryphon) Princess of Babylon by Voltaire (Gryphon) Source of Magic by Piers Anthony (Gryphon) Wizard’s Heir by Daniel Hood (Gryphon) Fig. 14. Lämmergeier, or lion-eagle; the true Gryphon Fig. 12. Protoceratops andrewski by Bob Giuliani Fig. 6. John Tenniel’s Gryphon, from Alice in Wonderland

180 A Wizard’s Bestiary Swimmers 10. Merfolk By Oberon Zell-Ravenheart & Tom Willams My gentle Puck, come hither. Thou rememb’rest Since once I sat upon a promontory, And heard a mermaid on a dolphin’s back Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath, That the rude sea grew civil at her song, And certain stars shot madly from their spheres, To hear the sea-maid’s music. —Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2.1:148-154—Oberon to Puck) HE MERMAID (FROM LATIN MER, “sea”), an alluringly beautiful woman from the waist up, and a fish from the waist down, has always been a favorite creature of legend and romance. She personifies the beauty, romance, and treachery of the sea, and especially the coastal shoals and rocks upon which many a ship is wrecked. There has never been a time or place in nautical history when mariners have not told of Mermaids they encountered. Bare-breasted Mermaids are often shown sitting on rocks combing their long, green hair to entice sailors to a watery doom. They have been confused with Sirens, even giving that name to a class of marine mammals (Sirenia). However, the original Sirens of Greek mythology were not aquatic at all, but birds with the heads and breasts of women. Sirenomelia, also called “mermaid syndrome,” is a rare congenital disorder in which a child is born with his or her legs fused together and the genitalia reduced. This condition is usually fatal within a day or two of birth because of kidney and bladder complications. There are three known survivors of this disorder alive today. The folklore of Mer-people is ancient and widespread, crossing cultures, continents, and centuries. They have been called by diverse names—Abgal, Adaro, Sirens, Selchies, Tritons, Undines, Melusines, Morgans, Korrigans, Lorelei, Rusulki, Nixies, Nereids, Naiads, and Ningyos. Inhabiting splendorous undersea kingdoms of coral castles, they are said to be as soulless as water, but they may acquire a coveted soul by marrying a human. Symbolizing eloquence in speech, the heraldic Mermaid is commonly shown with a comb and a mirror, and described as a “mermaid in her vanity.” (Fig. 1) The mirror also represents the moon, ruler of the tides. Merfolk of History The earliest recorded Merman of legend was Ea, or Oannes in Greek. He was an Akkadian deity originating around 5,000 BCE, who was later adopted by the Babylonians. An account by Berossus, a Chaldean priest of Bel in Babylon, was preserved by Alexander Polyhistor of Greece: In the first year [of Babylon] there made its appearance from a part of the Erythrean Sea, an animal with reason, who was called Oannes. The whole body of the animal was like a fish; and had under the fish’s head another head, and also feet below, similar to those of a man, subjoined to the fish’s tail. His voice, too, and language were articulate and human; and a representation of him is preserved to this day. This Being in the daytime used to converse with men; but took no food at that season, and he gave them an insight into letters and sciences, and every kind of art.1 At sunset, Oannes would return to the sea, where he remained until dawn. The following figure shows a human apparently wearing a fish headdress and cape— probably a costume worn by his priests. Later, he came to be depicted as a typical Merman, with a human torso and a fish’s tail. Fig. 2. Oannes by Manly Palmer Hall Fig. 1. Heraldic Mermaid Ian Daniels

Creatures of Night 181 Ea/Oannes seems to be related to the Abgal or Apkallu of even earlier Sumerian myth. With the head of a man and the lower body of a fish, they were regarded as guardians and patrons of society, and teachers of the arts and sciences. It is thought that they are derived from the Apsu of the entourage of Enki, the god of wisdom who taught irrigation. In Philistine-Assyrian myth, their king is Dagon, god of earth and agriculture. Kul or Kulili are freshwater Merfolk of ancient Assyrian myth, with the typical upper body of a human and lower body of a fish. Kulullu are the males and Kuliltu, the females. Generally hostile to humans, they dwell in lakes, pools, and wells, which they stir up and pollute to render the waters undrinkable. They can be mollified by music, and singing a paean to them will secure their lifetime friendship. Countless other varieties of Merfolk appear down through the ages, in the mythologies and mariner’s tales of many seafaring peoples. Although most dwell in the seas, there are plenty of freshwater analogs— such as Naiads, Nixies, and Undines—said to inhabit various lakes and rivers. Although both Mermen and Mermaids are mentioned, most of the legends focus on the females of the species. Although some of the Merfolk—such as the German Hakenmann, the Tsimshian Hakulaq, the Inuit Ikalu Nappa, the Margygr of Greenland, and the Brazilian Igpupiara—are described as hideously ugly, the Mermaid of tradition is beautiful, seductive, and dangerous. Her long hair is said to be composed of seaweed. For a sailor, to see a Mermaid is almost always a portent of disaster— storm, shipwreck, drowning. Merfolk are said to dwell in a kingdom ruled by Neptune on the bottom of the sea, and they entice sailors to leap into the water to join them with seductive singing and music. However, Mermaids do sometimes rescue a drowning sailor. The Mermaid was believed to be real by both natural historians and explorers, who have reported many sightings and encounters over the centuries. Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE) was the first naturalist to record one in detail, in his monumental Natural History (77 CE): And as for the Meremaids called Nereides, it is no fabulous tale that goeth of them: for looke how painters draw them, so they are indeed: only their bodie is rough and scaled all over, even in those parts wherein they resemble women.2 But the classic form of the Mermaid was provided by the influential 5th-century bestiary, the Physiologus, which describes the mermaid as “a beast of the sea wonderfully shapen as a maid from the navel upward and a fish from the navel downward, and this beast is glad and merry in tempest, and sad and heavy in fair weather.”3 By the mid-13th century, the legend of the Mermaid was fully defined. In De Propietatibus Rerum, Bartholomew Angelicus describes her as a lethal seductress who charms sailors through sweet music: “But the truth is that they are strong whor*s [who lead men] to poverty and to mischief.” Typically, a Mermaid would lull a crew to sleep, kidnap a sailor, and take him to “a dry place” for sex. If he resisted, “then she slayeth him and eateth his flesh.”4 Tritons and Monkfish Tritons are Mermen of Greek lore, but not nearly as attractive as some of their kin in other parts of the world. Children of the Greek god of the sea, Poseidon (Roman, Neptune), they have forked fishtails and a mouthful of sharp teeth, as well as green hair, gills, and pointy ears. They are commonly shown bearing a trident, and blowing a “Triton’s trumpet” seashell (Charonia tritonis). Male Tritons delight in playing malicious tricks on hapless sailors, earning them a reputation for lasciviousness and deceit. Ambroise Pare (1517–1590), in his On Monsters and Marvels, reports that a male and female Triton were sighted around that time in the Nile River of Egypt. The 2ndcentury Greek philosopher Pausanias described a famous pickled “Triton” exhibited in the temple of Dionysos in Tanagra, Boiotia, Greece, where it was said to have been captured in the local river: On their heads they have hair like that of marsh frogs not only in color, but also in the impossibility of separating one hair from another. The rest of their body is rough with fine scales just as in the shark. Under their ears they have gills and a man’s nose, but the mouth is broader and the teeth are those of a beast. Their eyes seem to me blue, and they have hands, fingers, and nails like the shells of the murex. Under the breast and belly is a tail like a dolphin’s instead of feet.5 Fig. 4. Japanese Mermaid Fig. 3. Abgal

182 A Wizard’s Bestiary Fig. 5. Preserved “Triton” Both of these accounts are certainly descriptions of Angel Sharks (Squatina), an unusual group of sharks with flattened bodies and broad pectoral fins similar to those of rays. (Fig. 7) According to J.W. Buel, “it is frequently called Monk-Fish on account of its rounded head, which seems to be enveloped in a hood, and also because of a habit it has of rolling its eyes in a kind of reverential and supplicatory manner.”6 In the 13th century, one was captured in the Baltic Sea and taken to the King of Poland. Upon being shown to some Bishops of the Church, its rolling eyes were taken as a plea for release, and so it was. Another was caught off the coast of Germany in 1531, but it refused food and died after three days. In the Orient, these peculiar fish are called the Sea Bonze, or Sea Buddhist Priest. Likewise, Bishop Erik Pontopiddan, in his Natural History of Norway (1752), describes the Marmaele as small Merfolk, human in the upper part and fishlike below the waist. Thought to be the progeny of Mermaids and Mermen, they vary in size, from “the bignesse of an infant of half a year old” to a child of three. Local fishermen sometimes caught them: “They tell us that these creatures then roll their eyes about strangely, as if out of curiosity, or surprise, to see what they had not seen before.” Some were brought home and fed on milk, in hope of a foretelling of the future; but they were always returned to the sea within a day. Again, the detail of the rolling eyes strongly suggests the angel shark. Jenny Hanivers Fig. 7. Sea-Monk (L) and Sea-Bishop (R) from J. Sluper’s Omnium fere gentian, 1572 For centuries it has been a common taxidermy practice to creatively cut up and cobble together preserved rays and other sea life into weird “creatures.” Not only Tritons, but Monkfish, Bishop Fish, and Mermaids were created in this fashion, often using parts of different animals, and mummified expertly enough to appear quite real on the surface. For reasons long forgotten, these artificial monsters became known as Jenny Hanivers. The term is said to be derived from Anvers (modern Antwerp) in Belgium, which was supposedly a center for their creation. But most were manufactured by Japanese fishermen as curiosities and souvenirs for travelers. Each came with an individual story of its capture, and some sold for thousands of dollars.7 In the mid19th century, such preserved specimens became popular spectacles in Victorian London, and most people accepted them as authentic. The most famous was the Feejee Mermaid, first shown in a London coffeehouse and brought to Broadway in 1842 by P.T. Barnum. It was composed of the torso of a female orangutan grafted to the body of a salmon. A similar composite “Mermaid” appeared in a 1717 book on the sea life of the Molucca Islands of Indonesia. The engravings were done by Samuel Fallour, from specimens collected by Van der Stell, governor of Amboine Island. One of these was labeled a “Sea-Wyfe,” but it has become famous as the Mermaid of Amboine. The text describes her as “a monster resembling a Siren…. It was 59-inches long, and in proportion like an eel. It lived on land, in a vat full of water, during four days seven hours. From time to time it uttered little cries like those of a mouse….”8 The color picture shows her as olive green, with webbed fingers and an orange and blue fringe around her waist. Her elongated lower body has green fins along the back and tail. Clearly this is a Jenny Haniver, comprised of the body of a fish— probably a Dorado (Coryphaena hippurus)— awkwardly grafted to the torso of a female monkey. Fig. 9. Mermaid of Amboine Today, such fabricated creatures are commonly exhibited as carnival and circus sideshow attractions, where they are known in the trade as gaffs. Ugly Mermaids However, there have been countless sightings and reports through the ages of living Merfolk. The universality and vitality of the Mermaid legend suggests a substratum of fact: an actual animal that may appear Mermaid-like from a distance. Possible candiFig. 6. Angel Shark from Buel Fig. 8. Feejee Mermaid

Creatures of Night 183 dates are sirenians (manatees, dugongs, and seacows) and pinnipeds (seals, sea lions, and walruses). Dugongs (Dugong dugon) are Indonesian relatives of the American manatee; they were spotted in the Indian Ocean as early as the 4th century BCE by the Greek adventurer Megasthenes.12 They have long, sleek bodies, large, whale-like tails, and, on the females, breasts very similar to those of women. In the Speculum Regale (“King’s Mirror”) written in Norway around 1250, the Mermaid is described more as a Neanderthal-like throwback than a beautiful woman: Another prodigy called mermaid has also been seen there. This appears to have the form of a woman from the waist upward, for it has large nipples on its breast like a woman, long hands and heavy hair, and its neck and head are formed in every respect like those of a human being. The monster is said to have large hands and its fingers are not parted but bound together by a web like that which joins the toes of water fowls. Below the waist line it has the shape of a fish with scales and tail and fins.... The monster is described as having a large and terrifying face, a sloping forehead and wide brows, a large mouth and wrinkled cheeks.9 In all likelihood—especially considering the geographical context—this is a description of a female Walrus (Odobenus rosmarus). In Greenland folklore, it was called Margygr. In the folklore of northern Germany, the Hakenmann (“Hook Man”) was a vicious predatory sea-monster with a humanoid torso, and the head and lower body of a gigantic fish. The fearsome “hook” would be the tusks possessed by both sexes. On January 4, 1493, on his first voyage to the Americas, Christopher Columbus reported seeing three Mermaids frolicking in the ocean just off of Haiti. He recorded in his log that the female forms “rose high out of the sea, but were not as beautiful as they are represented.”10 Captain John Smith also saw a Mermaid in the West Indies. She swam gracefully as he observed her, and as he “was about to lose his heart the lady turned over, revealing below the tail of a fish.”11 These could only have been Caribbean Manatees (Trichechus manatus). Fig. 13. Manatee from Buel, 1887 Other Mermaids based on manatees include the Brazilian Igpupiara or Hipupiara (“Dweller in the Water”), which has a humanoid torso and a fishlike lower body and tail. Its head is said to resemble that of a seal, and its five fingers are webbed. This is probably the Amazon Manatee (Trichechus inunguis). Another creature contributing to sightings and legends of Merfolk in Artic waters was the giant sirenian known as the Stellar’s Sea-Cow (Hydrodamalis gigas). Living only in the vicinity of Siberia’s remote Commander Islands, adults weighed up to 8,000 pounds and measured up to 35 feet in length, with a 20-foot girth that tapered to whale-like flukes. Instead of front flippers, they had stumpy, elephantine feet, with which the placid creatures pulled themselves along the bottom as they grazed in the coastal shallows. Like other sirenians, the females had two humanlike breasts on their upper chests, and nursed their young sitting upright in the water. First discovered officially in 1741 by a Russian expedition commanded by Dane Vitus Bering, successive explorers killed and ate every one over the next 27 years, resulting in their extinction by 1768. Inuit legends of the giant Merfolk they called Ikalu Nappa surely referred to sea-cows. The seacow is probably also the basis of the Hakulaq, a huge female sea-monster in the folklore of the coastal Tsimshian Indians of America’s Pacific Northwest. She was said to use her progeny as bait; if humans tried to take her baby from the water, she would follow and swamp their boat with stormy waves. The Micmac Indians of eastern Canada tell of the Halfway People, whose upper bodies are humanoid and their lower parts are those of huge fish. They sing to warn people of approaching storms, but if shown disrespect, they invoke terrible tempests and turbulence. Similarly, the Norwegian Havfine (“Sea-Woman”), with the torso of a woman and the tail of a fish, was said to be a wave herder. When the storm waves were driven like fleecy sheep upon the shore, any sailors still at sea were in danger of shipwreck. The Welsh Gwenhidwy Fig. 11. Dugong by OZ Fig. 12. Walruses Fig. 14. Stellar’s Sea-Cow

184 A Wizard’s Bestiary was also said to be a shepherdess of the waves. The sight of her was said to bring good fortune. Selkies and Roane Another group of Mermaid legends is associated with seals. The Auvekoejak, found in the waters around Greenland, was described by the Inuit as similar to Merfolk, but covered in fur rather than scales. The same creature was called Havstrambe by the Norse of Iceland and Scandinavia. It has been equated with the Northern Fur Seal (Callorhinus ursinus). In 1608, the English navigator Henry Hudson was skirting the polar ice off the arctic coast of Russia in his second attempt to find a northeast passage to the spice markets of China. Near the coast of Nova Zembla, Hudson made this log entry of 15 June: 12 This morning, one of our companie looking over board saw a mermaid, and calling up some of the companie to see her, one more came up, and by that time shee was close to the ship’s side, looking earnestly upon the men: a little after, a Sea came and overturned her: From the Navill upward, her backe and breasts were like a woman’s…her body as big as one of us; her skin very white; and long haire hanging down behinde, of colour blacke; in her going down they saw her tayle, which was like the tayle of a Porposse, and speckled like a Macrell. Ben-Varry and Dinny-Marra (Manx, “man of the sea”) are seal-like Merfolk said to dwell around the Isle of Man. Ben-Varrey are the females, who delight in enchanting sailors with their beautiful songs, then luring them to their deaths. The males, who tend to be friendly and easy to get along with, are called Dinny-Marra. In Danish folklore, the females are called Havfrue or Havfinë (“sea-woman”), and the males are Havmand or Havman (“sea-man”). They have blue skin and green or black hair, and tend to be very unpredictable—one moment kind, the next vicious. It is considered very unlucky to see one. Able to shift from fish tail to human legs, they can live in either salt or fresh water. In Scotland’s Orkney Isles, the Fin People bask on the shore during the summer near Eynhallow village. According to legend, the people of Eynhallow were once in communion with the Fin People of Finfolkaheen, a mirror village beneath the waves. If any of the Fin People could succeed in seducing a human, they would lose their fish tail and live on land. Likewise, the Shetland Island Sea Trow is able to shift from a fish’s tail to legs and feet. Hans Christian Anderson’s story of The Little Mermaid is based on such creatures, as was the 1984 hit movie Splash! and the 2006 teen chick-flick, Aquamarine. But the quintessential mythology of Merfolk that can become human is found in the legends of the Roane and Selchies (Orcadian, “seal”) from the Orkney and Shetland islands of Scotland, Ireland, and Britain. Rather than sporting fish tails and human bodies, the shy Selkies and Roane appear as Grey Seals (Halicho*rus grypus) while in the water. However, they can remove the sealskins if they wish and walk upon land as humans. Of the two, the Scottish Roane are the more gentle-natured. Angered Selkies can raise fierce storms to sink the boats of seal hunters or any others who offend them. Both can be captured by taking their skins and hiding them. If a Selkie or Roan thus captured is forced into a marriage, it will be a faithful and loyal spouse, albeit somewhat sad. But if ever it should recover its sealskin it will return to the ocean and never look back. This legend is hauntingly told in the movie The Secret of Roan Inish (1994). People born with webbed hands or feet are said to be “Selkie-born.” Virtually all other claimed sightings of living Merfolk that provide enough descriptive information can be identified with known pinnipeds or sirenia. However, there is another very intriguing possibility. Aquatic Apes In 1960, British marine biologist Sir Alister Hardy outlined a radical new theory of human origins.13 He suggested that our apelike proto-hominid ancestors might have spent a period of their evolutionary history in the sea, living much like sea otters. Foraging along the shores of the shallow tropical sea, covering what is now the Afar Peninsula, they would have had access to a rich diet of crabs, mussels, fish, and seaweed while the rest of Africa was suffering from the 3-million-year drought of the Pliocene Era. Fig. 16. Selchie removing seal-skin Fig. 15. Daryl Hannah in Splash!

Creatures of Night 185 Groping around the rocks and tide pools, these littoral apes would have moved out gradually to greater depths, becoming more and more erect and bipedal as they held their heads above the water, and eventually becoming swimmers. Following the evolutionary adaptations of other marine mammals, they would have lost their body hair, retaining only a cap on their heads as protection against the sun. Interestingly, the fossil remains of “Lucy,” widely hailed as one of our earliest ancestors, were found in an aquatic environment, along with turtles and seashells. Just as sea otters use rocks to bash open mussels, the aquatic apes would have learned to use stones and other implements to crack shells and winkle out snails. As the long drought came to an end, they would have returned to the land with tool-using skills, bipedality, and hairless skin. Unique among apes, but in common with all other sea mammals, they would have developed layers of subcutaneous fatty tissue as insulation, as well as the ability to hold their breath underwater and cry salty tears. Concerned about his academic reputation, Hardy never developed this controversial thesis further. But it came to the attention of Elaine Morgan, who presented and championed it for a popular audience in her 1972 book, The Descent of Woman, 14 and in several subsequent books and articles. The aquatic ape theory does seem to account for virtually all of the otherwise inexplicable ways in which humans differ physically from all other apes—especially because all of these features are endemic to marine mammals. It explains why human babies swim naturally immediately after birth; why humans so enjoy swimming and water activities; why we have webbing between our fingers and toes; why women’s buoyant breasts, like those of sirenia, are designed to float so that babies can suckle at the surface without drowning; why our uniquely downwardopening nostrils trap air when we submerge; and perhaps most indicative of all, because this appears in the fetal stage, why the hair tracks on our bodies are aligned with the flow of water for swimming—completely different from those of terrestrial apes. (Fig.18) Two million years ago, the long drought of the Pliocene era finally came to an end. Forests and grasslands spread across equatorial Africa, and diverse populations of animals soon followed. At the same time, sea levels dropped hundreds of feet, exposing vast territories of continental shelves as the northern latitudes succumbed to the glaciations of the Pleistocene. And along those newly expanded coastal plains, early humans emigrated from Mother Africa and spread throughout the world. But why should all of the aquatic apes have given up their idyllic existence at the seashore to brave a more difficult life on land, in competition with tougher apes and ferocious predators? Clearly some did return to the land, or we wouldn’t be here now. But surely others would have remained in the sea and continued evolving further aquatic adaptations, just like the cetaceans, sirenia, and pinnipeds did before them. Given those examples, it would be expected that eventually, their hind legs would diminish into flippers like those of a seal, or would disappear altogether to be replaced with a fluked tail like that of a dolphin. But the arms would very likely remain humanlike, as the grasping fingers and opposable thumbs had become far too useful to abandon. These are the very reasonable speculations that make the existence of marine primates resembling our traditional descriptions of Merfolk seem plausible. The Hunting of the Ri In July of 1983, off the coast of New Ireland, 300 miles northeast of New Guinea, Dr. Roy Wagner, head of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, and cryptozoologist Richard Greenwell observed an unknown sea mammal that Wagner had heard about four years earlier.15 Local natives called it a Ri or Ilkai, describing it as having a fishlike lower body and a humanoid head and torso, with prominent breasts on the females. In other words, a Mermaid! This identification was reinforced by its Pidgin name: Pishmeri (“fish-woman”), and confirmed by the natives’ pointing to the Mermaid depicted on cans of tuna (R) as being the same creature. Fig. 17. Lucy Fig. 18. Hair tracks on human fetus, from F.W. Jones, Man’s Place among the Mammals.

186 A Wizard’s Bestiary The animal flexed its back sharply, waved its wide, fluked tail high in the air when diving, and stayed underwater for periods of about 10 minutes, surfacing for only two seconds. Although dugongs are known in the area, experts on dugong behavior report average durations of submergence at one minute. Although unable to approach closer than 50 feet away in a small dinghy, Wagner got a few murky photos of a rolling back and an uplifted tail. The field report, published in Cryptozoology, concluded that Having considered all the possibilities, the authors have not been able to identify the Ri or Ilkai as part of the known inventory of zoology. None of the marine mammalogists consulted so far are convinced that the animal we observed and photographed is one they are acquainted with. We are therefore left with the tantalizing possibility that the animal we observed is indeed new to science. 16 This report became an immediate sensation, resulting in other articles appearing in Science, 17 Omni, Weekly World News, and various other journals. In February of 1985, irresistibly intrigued by the ISC report, I assembled and led a 13-person diving expedition to New Ireland to identify and videotape the Ri. This expedition was sponsored jointly by the Ecosophical Research Association (ERA) and the International Society of Cryptozoology (ISC), and funded by the lease of our living Unicorns to the circus (see Chapter 4: “The Universal Unicorn”). We all became SCUBA certified, and several of us learned Pidgin to enable us to communicate with the native people. We chartered a 65-foot Australian dive boat called the Reef Explorer, and set out from Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, steaming to New Ireland by way of the Trobriand Islands. Our destination was Nokon Bay, a small lagoon on the north side of the island where Wagner and Greenwell had sighted the Ri/Ilkai two years before. “There must be a Ri!” the Spellman cried, As he conjured his crew with care; Encouraging each with excitement and pride Or a finger entwined in their hair.18 Ri Expedition member Tom Williams reports Even in Port Moresby, we began to hear stories of “mermaids.” While the ship was being fueled, a native by the name of Alphonse Bouhoudumu told us of a creature he had seen in 1970 in Manus after it had been brought ashore by Japanese fishermen. The “woman fish” had a fish-like tail instead of legs and long hair. The local doctor had been asked to operate to see if he could find any legs, but had said there was nothing he could do. The creature was subsequently released back into the sea. The Reef Explorer arrived at Nokon on Feb. 11th, and dropped anchor at 1:45 p.m. Almost immediately, two expedition members, Morning Glory Zell and Rich Bergero, sighted the flukes of an animal above the water on the south side of the bay. Observations were made from 2:00 p.m. until about 5:30, both from the surface and once from under water. Surface observation revealed flukes or a rolling back, often with a head visible. In addition, another, distinctly small individual was sighted. About that time, a native called Tom Omar came up in a rowboat. When asked about the Ilkai, he pointed to a tail that was just breaking surface and exclaimed, “Ilkai, ilkai, em I stap!” (“There it is!”). He then went on to describe the female as having a woman’s face, hair, hands, and breasts, saying that there was a family living in the bay: a male, a female, and a child (“Em i man, na meri, na pikinini.”). All the while, the animal was displaying the rolling back and tail activity described by Wagner and others who were on the previous ISC expedition. A much more spectacular observation was made under water by the captain of the Reef Explorer, Kerry Piesch. At about 3:30 p.m., he set out from the boat with fins and snorkel and a small underwater camera. Shortly thereafter, he signaled that he had observed and photographed the animal under water. Its length was approximately 5 feet and the color appeared a greenish-grey underwater. A distinct head was joined to the body with no discernable neck. The forelimbs were short and paddle-shaped, but the face could not be seen clearly from the observer’s position. The hindquarters tapered off in a very streamlined shape ending in the widefluked tail seen from the surface. The morning of Feb. 15th brought an abrupt end to activities at Nokon. Early in the morning some villagers were observed pulling a large animal out of the water onto the beach. When expedition members Oberon Zell and Tom Williams swam to the beach from Fig. 19: Underwater photo of Ilkai by Capt. Kerry Piesch Oberon Zell

Creatures of Night 187 the Reef Explorer, they discovered that the animal was an adult female dugong. She had apparently been killed by a single wound, slightly behind the right flipper. Subsequent autopsy by Oberon revealed that she had been shot by a high-powered rifle. The night before, another boat, named the “Cuddles” had anchored in the bay. The next morning it was gone. We could only conclude that the creature had been shot by someone on that boat. There can now be little doubt that the animal variously known as the Ri or Ilkai, and associated with stories of Merfolk and possible marine primates is in reality the Indo-Pacific Dugong (Dugong dugon). The combination of visual sighting, both above and under water, along with photographic evidence and, tragically, the death of an animal at about the same time and place make this conclusion inescapable. One of the lingering questions is how the myths of Merfolk can arise and persist in the face of the obvious reality of the dugong. The statements of Tom Omar are a case in point. There is apparently a kind of belief system at work whose nature transcends the strict discipline of zoology and spills over into the realm of anthropology and psychology. Whatever the original source of the stories, they appear to persist as some sort of self-perpetuating male fantasy. Their guest, he looked pensive and stared out to sea— Then he smiled all the while he declaimed: “Oyo mama!” he whistled most suggestively— “Yu should see em, tasol!” he exclaimed.20 The structure or mechanism of such a male fantasy became apparent in conversations with various individuals. Whatever the actual facts behind various reported sightings and incidents, there appeared to be a certain prestige associated with having had an encounter with a Ri or Ilkai. Thus, when one male of the tribe gained that prestige through telling his tale, others felt they, too, needed to have stories in order to gain recognition from their peers. When another man had a story and gained equal footing with the first teller, the cycle would repeat. Pretty soon a sort of tacit “club” formed consisting of those who had tales to tell. Now, each might know the truth or falseness of his own tale, but could never be quite sure of that of the next fellow. In fact, it was tacitly unacceptable to question the tales of others lest one’s own tale be called into question. By this route, an actual “belief” in the existence of the Ri or Ilkai arose because those who did not have their own experience tended to accept the tales of those who so claimed. This made for a form of social interaction for the menfolk of the tribe allowing them to engage in what in our culture might be called “bull sessions” sharing tales, much as men do in bars all over the world. The only members of the tribe who seemed unimpressed with this entire structure of storytelling were the women. Monster Movies: Mermaids Many popular fantasy movies have featured Mermaids. Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid (1948) is told by a psychiatrist whose patient claims to have caught a Mermaid which he is keeping in his bathtub. In Miranda (1948), a comely Mermaid marries a London doctor and bears a fish-tailed baby. A sequel, Mad About Men, was released in 1954. In The Mermaids of Tiburon (1962), beautiful Mermaids aid a diver in his search for sunken treasure. Beach Blanket Bingo (1965) also includes a human-Mermaid romance. In Splash (1984), Daryl Hannah plays a Mermaid who falls in love with a man. She can walk on land as a woman, but if water touches her legs, they revert to a fish tail. In the German film, Ondine (1991), a freshwater Mermaid, or Undine, is saved from a developer who wants to destroy her lake for a ski resort. Disney’s The Little Mermaid (1989), is based on the Hans Christian Anderson story of a Mermaid who sacrifices her tail and voice to gain legs for a human lover. She Creature (2001) features a villainous Mermaid with a taste for human flesh. Aquanoids (2003) was about siren-like sea-creatures. In Aquamarine (2006), two 12-year-old girls befriend a sassy teenage Mermaid with the ability to change her tail into legs when on land. In Heart’s Atlantis (2006), a grieving boy finds solace with a Mermaid in his backyard pool. Lady in the Water (2006) features a Narf, or water-Nymph, who appears in the swimming pool of an apartment building. Mermaids also appear briefly in all the Peter Pan movies, in Narnia (2005), and in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005). Oberon Zell Oberon Zell

188 A Wizard’s Bestiary 11. The Kraken By Tom Williams The Kraken Below the thunders of the upper deep; Far far beneath in the abysmal sea, His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee About his shadowy sides; above him swell Huge sponges of millennial growth and height; And far away into the sickly light, From many a wondrous grot and secret cell Unnumber’d and enormous polypi Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green. There hath he lain for ages, and will lie Battening upon huge seaworms in his sleep, Until the latter fire shall heat the deep; Then once by man and angels to be seen, In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die. —Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1830 HAT IS THE SEA? SUPERFICIALLY, IT IS the layer of saline water covering 70 percent of our planet. Yet on a deeper level it has influenced the cultures and psyches of countless societies throughout history. It has provided food and sustenance, served as a route for trade and exploration, borne military fleets on voyages of conquest, served as a barrier against marauders, evoked mystery and poetry from bards and singers—and represented some of humanity’s deepest fears. The sea represents to this very day a frontier of the unknown—a place of darkness and discovery, harboring strange and beautiful creatures as well as devouring monsters that haunt our dreams and the deepest recesses of our imaginations. It is from the realm of the sea and its darkest depths that the engrossing legend of the Kraken rises—the Kraken, universally depicted as an all-devouring monster with arms that draw its victims inexorably and inescapably to an implacable, consuming maw that shreds and consumes the very being. The Kraken—the creature that lurks in the darkness and sometimes emerges on the surface to wrap its tentacles around a hapless vessel to draw it beneath the waves. From earliest times, it is represented with multiple arms or heads on stalks, often with a mouth or beak at the center that rends and bites and consumes the flesh— and in many cases the soul—of its prey. Of all the frightening beasts of legend, it is seldom that there has been such a direct correspondence between the mythical image and the actual animal. For the Kraken is real, as real as a whale or a turtle or a gull skimming the waves. The real animal, a taxonomically identifiable organism as plainly a part of the grand march of evolution as any other creature, embodies most of the horrific attributes associated with the Kraken in the most fanciful legends and seamen’s tales. In its largest and most incredible manifestation, the real animal could very well convince us of the reality behind the most fantastic metaphysical horrors and tortured fantasies of crazed authors of fiction. The Kraken is the giant squid— and its more recently discovered cousin, the colossal squid. Yet having said that, how do we approach this realization? Simply being handed the solution to what started as some sort of cryptozoological investigation does not do justice to the reality or to the legend that preceded it. For a good long time, the question of the giant squid really was a cryptozoological issue. There were reports, a sampling of which we will review in this chapter, dating from the early days of seafaring. There were the legends of Scylla and Charybdis; there were the tales of Jules Verne; there were questions such as, “Did Fig. 1. Attack of the Giant Squid in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Ian Daniels

Creatures of Night 189 such a thing really exist, and, if so, how big could it really be?” As we shall see, we have now answered most of those questions. Still, the mind-boggling question remains: “If this thing really does exist as a living creature, how to we deal with that fact?” I am proposing that the reality of the Kraken highlights one of those rare instances in which the metaphysical world of our legends, fears, and archetypal fantasies overlaps with the real, biological, physical world on a continuing basis. But the Kraken has several characteristics that arise from and feed our deepest fears—and which can be identified as well in the living animal. Among these characteristics is that of implacability; despite all attempts to slay or stop the beast, it just keeps coming. It seems that wounding it simply makes it attack all the more. Consider the most ancient legend that can be identified with the multiarmed monster we know as the giant squid—namely, that of the Hydra. The Hydra The Hydra was a monster living in the swamps near the city of Lerna in Argolis (in ancient Greece). It was the offspring of Echidna (half maiden, half serpent), and Typhon, who had 100 heads. The Hydra had the body of a serpent and many heads. In some versions of the legend they numbered nine, and in others, 100. The point here is that the multiple heads probably refer to semi-independent attacking arms belonging to the same creature. One of these heads was impervious to any weapon, and the others, if cut off, simply regrew. In some versions, two regrow for every one cut off. Its breath had a stench that could kill as well. The Hydra was known for attacking herds of cattle and whole villages, which it devoured with its many heads. The hero Heracles came to do battle with the Hydra, bringing his nephew and charioteer, Iolaus. Heracles defeated the Hydra by bending the rules a bit: Realizing that simply cutting off heads was a losing proposition, he instructed Iolaus to cauterize each wound from a severed head with his torch to keep them from growing back. The final head, which was said to be immune from every weapon, Heracles simply bashed with his club, tore it off with his bare hands, and buried it. Now, a club is technically a weapon, so Heracles appears to have been given a pass here. But let’s look at some of the relevant details. The thing lives in the swamp, which, while not the ocean, is still a place of the dark unknown which may swallow the unwary wanderer. It is the deep even if it is not the ocean. The Hydra’s many heads are depicted as being on long, flexible necks, which enables them to come at its opponents from different directions. There is what appears to be a central head, the invincible one that all the others serve and protect. Attempts to slay the beast only result in making matters worse. It just keeps coming. Scylla Now, there is not a lot of evidence that the ancient Greeks had any direct experience with giant squid…or is there? Scylla is the name of a monster living under a huge rock in the Straight of Messina. She is a nymph who was transformed by the wrath of Circe into a monster with twelve feet and six heads. When a passing ship comes within range, each one of her heads plucks a hapless sailor from the deck and devours him. Still, there is no direct (or indirect) evidence that a cephalopod is at the basis of the Scylla myth. No large squid are known to inhabit the Mediterranean, and small octopus species are more prized as delicacies than feared as monsters. It is more likely that Scylla, and her companion horror, Charybdis, are mythical embodiments of a deep human fear of being drawn into the abyss and devoured. Charybdis is the daughter of Poseidon and Gaia, whom Zeus had turned into a monster for stealing Helios’ cattle. Sucking in and spewing out large amounts of water, and sucking under whole ships with their crews, Charybdis also embodies the consuming horror of the deep. Ulysses steers clear of Charybdis, opting to have six of his shipmates grabbed and eaten by Scylla rather than lose the whole ship to Charybdis. Still, the association with cephalopods is hard to deny. Part of the Odyssey’s description of Scylla reads, “Her legs, and there are twelve, are like great tentacles, unjointed, and upon her serpent necks are joined six heads….” As for a direct connection between the myths of seamonsters and great squid among the ancient Greeks, however, we must be content with speculation. Fig. 2. Lernean Hydra from Greek vase Fig. 3. Scylla, by Hal Foster Fig. 4. Charybis

190 A Wizard’s Bestiary Mariners’ Tales In the post-Classical era, however, the picture is quite different. Here we have not simply stories set in some mythical past, but reports of actual sightings and incidents, told by sailors who claimed to base them on real experience, however much they may have embellished the retelling. We also have drawings either taken from the descriptions or done by the actual witnesses. It is here that the connection to real cephalopods becomes unmistakable. When Europeans first ventured beyond the Gates of Hercules they hugged the coasts of Europe and Africa. The vastness of the Atlantic must have appeared as a huge unknown, and quite naturally would have harbored monsters both real and imagined. Tales, of course, abounded, as the appearance of the great whales, such as the blue whale or the sperm whale, would certainly have qualified as the sighting of a monster. The literature contains a fairly large number of reports that could quite easily be identified as sightings of giant squid, but others are more of a stretch. These reports, which range roughly from about 1000 CE to the early 20th century, constitute an interesting mixture of tales. Some later authors and investigators have rightly concluded that there is a squid at the bottom of some of them, whereas others simply projected their own preconceived notions about the anatomy of squids into the descriptions of sightings, and asked themselves what part of a squid’s anatomy seen from which perspective could have given rise to those descriptions. An exhaustive recounting of these tales is not appropriate in this contribution, but a few examples certainly are. One of the more noteworthy is a description of “monstrous fish” by Olaus Magnus, who was the Catholic archbishop of Sweden. Part of that description (circa 1555) reads, “Their forms are horrible, their heads square, all set about with prickles and they have a sharp horn round about like a tree rooted up by the roots….” What is interesting in the Magnus account is the description of it resembling an uprooted tree, which brings us to the topic of the word Kraken. Around 1000 CE, King Severre of Norway first used Kraken to describe a sea-monster, and the word occurs again in another work by a Norwegian, Bishop Erik Ludvigsen Pontoppidian, in his The Natural History of Norway (1755). Apparently, the association of the word Kraken with an uprooted tree is a tenuous connection at best. Kraken is actually the plural of the word krake, which simply means “sea-monster.” There are a few remarkable illustrations of sightings that are unmistakably giant squid. Even the ones that look more like octopuses are surely based on squid. Sorting out exactly how factual the accounts behind these engravings are is not so much the point as is the anatomical similarity between the drawings and the actual animal. Everything we know today about large squid—be they giant or colossal— tells us that none of them is large enough to actually drag a ship down to Davy Jones’s Locker. That doesn’t mean they are not big and dangerous, mind you—just not that big. Fig. 7. Kraken attack on a sailing ship A recent and more realistic account came in 1861 from the French corvette Alecton, whose crew reported the killing and capture of a giant squid. The crew was able to bring only a portion of the body aboard because it broke apart while being hoisted out of the water. The Alecton report and the accompanying illustrations appear in the light of today’s knowledge to be quite realistic, yet the captain and crew were denounced as liars. The eyes were described as the size of dinner plates, and the mouth as being 18 inches across. In addition, the crew mentions a horrible stench. In a freshly caught animal, this would not be the result of putrification but the normal characteristic of the giant squid—that is, the ability to secrete ammonia. We know now that both the giant and the colossal squid lack swim bladders like those of fish, but Fig. 5. Monstrous Fish by Olaus Magnus (1555) Fig. 6. W.C. Coup (1882) Fig. 8. The Alecton encounter3

Creatures of Night 191 can adjust their buoyancy by secreting ammonia into their tissues, thus changing their specific gravity. This results in the smell, and renders the flesh completely inedible. The Alecton incident appears to be a reliable and factual account of an encounter with a giant squid. Architeuthis The resistance in the biological community to accepting the existence of this species as well as its size remained intense until the late 20th century, when it could no longer be denied. One is tempted to attribute this to the normal skepticism of the scientific community, but one must factor in an additional element—the archetypal horror of the all-consuming Kraken of our deep, existential fears. This, then, leads us to the question of just how big and aggressive can these monsters be—for monsters they truly are. When we talk about the Kraken, we are actually speaking of two distinct species that are now (albeit after much convincing) recognized by science: the Giant Squid, Architeuthis dux, and the Colossal Squid, Mesonychiteuthis hamiltoni. For some time, it was speculated that Architeuthis was a passive feeder, hanging inverted in a chosen temperature layer deep in the ocean, seizing passing prey with its long tentacles, and then drawing the prey to its beak with its eight shorter arms. We now know that Architeuthis is an aggressive predator. Like all squid, it has two long appendages called “tentacles” that are elastic and can be shot out to seize prey with the club-like pods on the end of each. Then it has eight shorter arms that grab and draw the prey to the savage beak, which shreds and devours it. In the case of giant squid, the suckers on both tentacles and arms are ringed with sharp tooth-like hooks. The first Architeuthis caught live (in December of 2006, by a team of Japanese researchers) actively attacked the bait and fought being hauled in, losing the pod of one tentacle, which writhed for some time with its toothed sucker cups on the deck of the ship. The squid itself did not survive the capture, but was the first example of Architeuthis to be photographed live. As to the aggressive nature of large squid in general, we can look at a more familiar example, the Humboldt squid, Dosidicus gigas. Unlike the two giant species, the Humboldt squid is edible—but then it has the same attitude toward those who would try to capture it. Growing up to six feet long, including the arms (but not the tentacles), and weighing about 100 pounds, the Humboldt squid inhabits the Sea of Cortez and from the tip of Baja, California, to, most recently, the Central California coast. They move in schools of up to 1200 individuals and can swim at up to 13 knots, often coming up at night from depths of around 2,000 feet to feed. Local fishermen fear them because a significant number of them have been attacked and badly bitten, and some have been dragged down to their doom by groups of squid that were trying to eat the victim and each other. Humboldt squid have toothed suckers like those of the giant varieties. Their reputation as aggressive hunters is not in doubt, and, given the observed behavior of the one living Architeuthis, can probably be assumed to be the case with the two giant species. Both the giant and colossal squid have toothed suckers on their arms. The Architeuthis has toothed suckers on the pods of its tentacles, whereas Mesonychoteuthis has swiveled hooks. Fig. 10. Architeuthis club (a) compared with Mesonychoteuthis club (b) The question of how big is a thornier one. Extrapolations of Architeuthis attaining 150 feet in length are just not credible. Also, statements about the length of giant squid tend to be confusing in general. Measurements—inflated to sound more sensational—include the arms, as well as the two elastic tentacles with wider clubs on the ends used to grab prey. At least in the case of Architeuthis, the length of these tentacles can vary widely, sometimes depending on how far they have been stretched by those doing the measurements. Then there are the eight arms, which typically have a length proportional to that of the particular specimen. The head, arms and tentacles extend from the front of the mantle, whose length is the standard used for comparing the relative sizes of giant and colossal squid. Fig. 11. Squid measurements By now we have a fairly large sample of specimens of Architeuthis, and it is not known to attain a mantle length greater than 7.4 feet, which would result in a length with the arms (not the tentacles) of no more than about 16.5 feet. To those among us who may be disappointed with these sizes, that is a very large and dangerous animal. But it’s just not capable of pulling under a vessel or impeding the progress of a 19th-century submarine. Mesonychoteuthis Fig. 9. Architeuthis a b

192 A Wizard’s Bestiary Mesonychoteuthis is a somewhat different matter. Colossal is quite the appropriate word for it. We know for a fact that it exists on the basis of at least two specimens, one of which was captured live in February of 2007 and brought, completely intact, aboard the fishing vessel that caught it, but died in the process of being hauled in. Unlike the Alecton, the fishing vessel was able to freeze the creature until it could be brought in for study. This creature, a mature male, weighed 992 pounds and was supposedly 39 feet long. Early reports neglected to specify which measurement this was. Mesonychoteuthis is considerably stockier and heavier than Architeuthis, in addition to being longer. The only other intact specimen was an immature female with a mantle length of 7.5 feet. Based on the estimates of female to male size, it is quite possible that a mature female could reach a mantle length of 13 feet or a little more. The weight, however, would approach a ton. Again, the beak is enormous, as can be seen in the photo of the captured male (Fig. 12). Estimates of squid size have been done by comparing beaks taken from the stomachs of sperm whales, which is the giant and colossal squids’ only natural predator. Some of the extrapolation has been done by examining fragments of tentacles and using their diameter to estimate the overall length. Because the Mesonychoteuthis is proportionally more heavy-set than Architeuthis, mistaking a colossal squid arm for that of a giant squid could lead to wildly different length estimates. The Kraken So now we know our monster. It is real. It is an implacable hunter, aggressive and deadly in its element—the deep ocean. Yet it rarely if ever has been known to attack humans. There was one incident off the coast of Nova Scotia in which a young boy in a small boat beat back an attacking squid while two adults cowered against the gunwales, but that is the only verified incident. Yet this image populates some of our deepest fears. It lurks in realms of mystery and nightmare. What has made it so compelling? Written when he was only 21, “The Kraken” by Tennyson contains evocative elements that foreshadow the Cthulhu mythos, begun in the early 20th century by H.P. Lovecraft and continued by other authors including Robert Bloch, August Derleth, Robert E. Howard and others. Among these elements are a mysterious great being slumbering beneath the depths of the sea, images of great age and murkiness, and the prospect that it will awaken and rise in the midst of some unnamed catastrophe. Just what moved Tennyson to write such a thing at such a tender age will never be known, except that he might have tapped into some archetypal imagery that would resonate and be reprised by others. Nor is it known whether Lovecraft or his circle were aware of this poem. As an author, H.P. Lovecraft was an admirer of such writers as Edgar Allan Poe, Lord Dunsany, and Arthur Machen. In terms of the literary craft, he never rose to the level of Poe, but his work influenced a good number of writers in the fantasy and horror genre. The Cthulhu mythos became a sort of shared world to which many contributed, but which was under no single author’s control. Great Cthulhu The Cthulhu mythos revolves around a race (or races) of alien beings who came to this planet untold ages ago—the chief among these being the Great Cthulhu—but who are now mostly dormant. Cthulhu lies dead but undead in the sunken city of R’lyeh in the depths of the Pacific. He is described as a large, green creature with bat wings, huge talons, and the head of a squid—that is, with tentacles below the eyes. Every so often, R’lyeh rises from the depths and the Great Old Ones hold sway until it sinks again. The myth holds that someday, when the “stars are right,” the sunken city will rise and the Old Ones led by Cthulhu will reign supreme over the Earth. As Cthulhu dreams in his slumbers, his thoughts influence certain sensitive persons who form cults to him, portray his image and perform deeds supposedly dedicated to him. The Cthulhu Mythos is populated by a number of other gods and beings such as “the crawling chaos that is Nyarlathotep,” a nebulous devouring being named Yog Sottoth (the “eater of souls”), and others. Yog Sottoth is instructive in that it exemplifies the all-devouring nature of an eater of souls—again, here is the image of implacably drawFig. 12. Captured male colossal squid (AP 2/22/07)1 Fig. 13. Giant and colossal squids compared2 Fig. 14. Great Cthulhu

Creatures of Night 193 ing in and consuming, linked to the clacking beak of a huge squid. The horror here is that one is not simply swallowed, but rapidly picked to pieces, bite by bite, and consumed most horribly.3 The slumbering beneath the sea seems to tie in with the fact that great squid dwell at incredible depths and thus are rarely seen on the surface—usually only when they are sick or dying. However, the sight of the emergence of a hungry, deadly Humboldt squid from the depths of the ocean—or, in the case of the Great Cthulhu, from a place beyond space—can give rise to an implacable horror of the sightless deep, as well as the hapless victim’s fear of being dragged into the creature’s alien world. Even a very bad 2006 HBO movie, Kraken: Tentacles of the Deep, depicted a giant squid recently woken from its long slumber and eating everybody (except, of course, the beautiful blonde leading marine biologist). It is a commonplace in Lovecraft stories that certain realities would better be left unknown. In The Call of Cthulhu, he writes, “The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our own frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.”4 One of the elements of The Call of Cthulhu is the existence of a cult, depicted by Lovecraft in his ingrained, racist way as made up of squat, swarthy men influenced by the thoughts of dreaming Cthulhu to do his bidding. They celebrate unspeakable rites and do dastardly things in their efforts to waken Cthulhu from his slumbers. Interestingly, something analogous to these cults may exist in the real world that involves the giant and colossal squid. Given that the only natural predator of both is the sperm whale, would not Great Cthulhu wish to free his “children” by doing away with this nasty menace? Sperm whales and giant squid do tremendous battles in the depths, with the whale usually coming out ahead of the game and eating the squid. If there were fewer whales, there could be more and larger squid. Now, despite the international pressure to ban or at least limit whaling, there are several nations that defy the International Whaling Commission and continue to slaughter whales all over the world. Could it be that these whalers are consciously or unconsciously doing the bidding of a dreaming Cthulhu by killing off the enemies of his minions? It has not escaped attention that there have been more Architeuthis brought out of the ocean depths in recent years than in all previous history. Even more recently, we have observed the recovery of at least two Mesonychoteuthis and can expect more. On the one hand, these developments have finally convinced a skeptical scientific community that these creatures do, indeed, exist. On the other hand, the increase in numbers could strike one as disturbing. Of course, such creatures as giant and colossal squid are just biological creatures that evolved in tune with their environment like all other forms of life, aren’t they? How then does humankind appear to have had a notion of their form before it became known in photos and specimens? How is it that there is a creature living today that appears to embody some of our most basic fears regarding our own existence and the integrity of our being? Are their numbers really increasing, or does the proof of their existence simply lend itself to the recognition of existing numbers? In other words, are there more or does it just seem as though there are more? If there truly are more, what is behind that increase? Is it possibly another effect of climate change, or is some other agency at work—buried behind a wall of dreams and lost in a realm of strange angles and dark shades? If you found yourself confronted with such a creature in its own realm, would it matter what the answer is? The horror is far away from our daily “placid island of ignorance,” as Lovecraft puts it. But it is real. It lurks in the sightless depths, its beak shredding toothfish and marlin with an intractable indifference to the fate of either. And, just occasionally, but perhaps more frequently, it reaches up above the waves to remind us of some of our most deeply seated and repressed fears. Addendum by Oberon… Like Tom, I too have always been fascinated with cephalopods in general, and giant squids in particular. I was enthralled by Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea as a kid, and, in 1954, I eagerly awaited Disney’s terrific movie version, wherein my favorFig. 15. Battle between sperm whale and squid by Oberon

194 A Wizard’s Bestiary ite scene was the battle with the giant squid. I grew up near Chicago, where I spent many happy weekends exploring the wonderful museums of the windy city. The indelible image that has remained in my mind these 50 years later is the full-size model of a giant squid that hung from the ceiling of the Field Museum of Natural History. Starting with Bernard Heuvelman’s classic Le Kraken et le Poulpe Colossal (1958), I have read every book and article on these creatures I could get my hands on, saved every news clipping on beached carcasses, and recorded every TV special on the current quest to film and obtain a live specimen. Fig. 16. Giant squid, life-size model, Natural History Museum5 I consider cephalopods to be among the most fascinating creatures on Earth. They belong to the order of Mollusca, which first appeared in the mysterious “Cambrian Explosion” 542 million years ago, along with every other order of multicellular life forms (including a couple dozen that were never seen again). They are undoubtedly the first animals to have developed intelligence. Laboratory studies of common reef octopuses indicate they are as smart as dogs. Unlike vertebrates, whose brains cannot outgrow their rigid skulls, the brains of cephalopods continue growing throughout their lives, just as the animal itself does. For an octopus, however, that isn’t a very long time. Even the giant Pacific Octopus lives no longer than six years, and the females of all octopi die after hatching their eggs. So whatever degree of intelligence they attain must be developed during a period of time corresponding to our own early childhoods. How smart were you at six, compared to now? Octopi are solitary hunters, and associate only briefly to mate. Therefore, other than territorial and mating signals, they have no need to develop any sophisticated form of communication with each other. It is pretty well considered axiomatic that the greatest intellectual development among all creatures occurs as a factor of intercommunication among the members of social species (for example, cetaceans, primates, wolves, elephants, and probably velociraptors), so the solitary existence of octopi, along with their short life span, would also limit how intelligent they can become. Neither of these limitations applies to giant squid. Although the largest remains found washed up on beaches have been in the very impressive neighborhood of up to 60 feet long from tail to tentacle tip, sucker scars on the skins of the adult male sperm whales that eat them, and undigested beaks found in the bellies of such whales, indicate the probable existence of truly colossal giants—possibly twice that size. Although no live specimen of Architeuthis has ever been obtained for study, experiments with other common species of squid—with brains the size of marbles—have indicated intelligence equivalent to that of octopi. There is no reason to assume less for their enormous cousins, whose donut-shaped brains surround their esophagi at the front of their heads. The confirmation of giant squids up to 60 feet long—and the probable existence of far larger specimens in the abyssal depths of the oceans—indicates that giant squids, like anacondas, great white sharks, and some dinosaurs, probably continue growing throughout their life. And, like all other cephalopods, their brains continue growing larger along with their bodies. What we don’t yet know, however, is their life span. Is it short, like that of other cephalopods, or long? Unlike octopi, squid are social hunters, often aggregating in vast schools. Indeed, early sonar developed during World War II often returned “false bottom” soundings, which were later thought to have been caused by extensive shoals of giant squids. The nearsimultaneous coordinated movements of schools of small squid which have been extensively filmed implies a sophisticated degree of communication—probably effected through subtle shifts in the coloration patterns made possible by the uniquely sensitive chromatophores possessed by all cephalopods. Squid have the greatest eye-to-body size ratio of any living creatures, and giant squid possess the largest eyes on Earth. Given large brains, coordinated social predation, and possible longevity, it is not much of a stretch to hypothesize a considerable intelligence for Architeuthis and Mesonychiteuthis. We are, of course, familiar with the nature of vertebrate intelligence (based largely on vocal/auditory communication), as it is our own. And we are somewhat aware of the nature (or at least the existence) of arthropod intelligence, in the form of “hive minds” among the social insects, which communicate primarily by scent. We are only lately beginning to study cephalopod intelligence; and as yet we have no idea how it may manifest in these monstrous squid. And thus, out of paleontology and marine biology, I offer my own contribution to the Cthulhu mythos: 542 million years ago, the Great Old Ones came to Earth, manifesting in many bizarre forms (see the Burgess Shale6 ). Most of those original orders killed each other off during the early millennia, and others (such as coelenterates, sponges, echinoderms, and worms) retreated into mindlessness and even sessility. Successful active hunters included the arthropod eurypterids and giant trilobites, but they never devel-

Creatures of Night 195 oped significant intelligence. Cephalopods—the Spawn of Cthulhu—first appeared as organisms with shells in the form of ammonites and nautiloids, some of which grew to more than 15 feet. And, they became intelligent. They ruled the oceans of this world unopposed for 200 million years, until a rival intelligence finally arose in the form of vertebrates—the first of which were armored like tanks to ward off beaks, claws, and suckers. From the 30-foot-long Dinicthys of the Upper Devonian, the 50-foot-long Icthyosaurs and Kronosaurs of the Cretaceous, and the Archaeocetae of the Eocene, to the 60-foot-long sperm whales of today, calamari has been a favorite food of many oceanic hunters specifically evolved to eat them (a real challenge for Architeuthis, whose body fluids are ammonia- rather than water-based!). And the bigger the squid, the bigger the hunters. We grew up together and in opposition to one another, each species stimulating the evolution—and intelligence—of the other. And for the past 350 million years, these three emerging orders of intelligence have been locked in ceaseless and savage warfare—in the seas and, eventually, on land. In the seas, cephalopods hunt and eat arthropod crustaceans and vertebrate fish; in turn, both are hunted and eaten by vertebrates: fish, marine reptiles, and marine mammals. And on land, where cephalopods have never emerged, the battle still rages between arthropod insects and all land vertebrates. Throughout human history, rare encounters with the Spawn of Cthulhu have given rise to horrific legends: the Hydra (from the Labors of Heracles); Scylla (from the Odyssey); the Centimani (“hundred-handed”) of the Titanomachia; the Norwegian Kraken; “Le Poulpe Colossal”; Bishop Olaus Magnus’s “monsterous fish”; Charles Douglas’s “Stoor worms”; and so on. Deep beneath the ocean waves, in the sunken land called R’lyeh, the collective soul of Great Cthulhu resides in a monstrous entity—like the termite queen in the foundation of the hive. He waits, hates, and dreams... And his malevolent dreams have seeped out into the nightmares of humanity. He is at war; he has always been at war, for 350 million years: at war with all vertebrate life, but particularly with his greatest adversary, the mighty sperm whale—the only creature on Earth that can defeat him in physical battle. And so Cthulhu has fostered a cult among humanity dedicated to destroying his ancient enemy: the worldwide whaling industry. In my fevered fantasies, I imagine secret temples hidden somewhere in the bowels of the whaling companies, with shrines to Great Cthulhu, where the whaling lords pay homage to their true master... That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die. —Abdul Alhazred, Al Azif Monster Movies: The Kraken and the Hydra The earliest attempt to create an animated cephalopod on film was a 1916 silent adaptation of Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. A far more successful version was produced by Disney in 1954, and remains an all-time classic. Although Ray Harryhausen’s monstrous 6-tentacled cephalopod in It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955) was depicted as a gigantic octopus, it was certainly meant to be a Kraken. And in that same year, Ulysses portrayed the multiheaded Scylla. A 1960 Italian film titled Hercules vs. the Hydra featured that beast. Harryhausen’s 1961 adaptation of Verne’s Mysterious Island had Captain Nemo’s divers attacked by a giant prehistoric nautilus. Harryhausen’s finest film, Jason and the Argonauts (1963) had a Hydra guarding the Golden Fleece. In the marvelous 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964), the Loch Ness Monster becomes a multiheaded Hydra. In 1981, Harryhausen included both the Kraken and the Hydra in Clash of the Titans. Cast a Deadly Spell (TV, 1991) featured Great Cthulhu. Peter Benchley’s The Beast (1996) was a quite realistic giant squid. Scylla appears in the 1997 TV miniseries of The Odyssey, and that same year, Disney’s animated Hercules included the Hydra. Peter Jackson’s superb adaptation of Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (2001) presented the “Watcher in the Water” as a kind of freshwater Kraken. Disney’s animated Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) again featured a Kraken. The Hydra was also portrayed in a very good TV miniseries simply called Hercules (2005). In 2006, the Sci Fi Channel premiered Kraken: Tentacles of the Deep. But the most spectacular Kraken ever created on screen was in Disney’s Pirates of the Fig. 18. Cthulhu by Oberon Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006). Fig. 17. Cretaceous Giant Squid and Mosasaur

196 A Wizard’s Bestiary 12. Hippocampus: the SeaHorse and the WaterHorse By Oberon and Morning Glory Zell O under the ocean waves I gallop the seaweed lanes, I jump the coral reef, And all with no saddle or reins. I haven’t a flowing mane, I’ve only this horsy face, But under the ocean waves I’m king of the steeplechase. —Blake Morrison T IS AN AXIOM IN THE MEDIEVAL BEStiary, the Physiologus, that the surface of the water is like Alice’s looking glass, with the world beneath being a kind of distorted reflection of the one above. Therefore it was believed that all creatures of the land had their aquatic counterparts in the sea, often distinguished by little more than fins instead of legs. Thus our fantastic menagerie is enriched by such wonders as Mermaids and Mermen (meaning “Sea-maids” and “Sea-men”), Sea-Lions, Sea-Unicorns (Narwhals), Sea-Cows (dugongs and manatees), SeaDogs, Sea-Cats (catfish), Sea-Bats, Sea-Anemones, Sea-Cucumbers, Sea-Hares, Sea-Goats (Capricorn), Sea- Gryphons, Sea-Monks, Bishop-Fish, Angel-Fish, Devil-Fish, Ichthyocentaurs (“Fish-Centaurs”), co*ckFish, Falcon-Fish, Elephant-Fish, Sea-Serpents, SeaStags, Sea Wolves—and Sea-Horses. Nearly all of these creatures actually exist, though our naturalistic modern depictions may seem sadly prosaic compared to their fabulous medieval antecedents. Remarkably, however, apart from a matter of scale, the zoological seahorse more exactly resembles its mythical counterpart than any other fabled sea-monster. Fig. 1. Hippocampus by Konrad Gesner (1558) The SeaHorse The mythical Sea-Horse or Hippocampus (“horselike water-monster”; from Greek hippos, meaning “horse,” and kampos, meaning “sea-monster”) is an equine aquatic beast in classical GrecoRoman mythology, with the head and forelegs of a horse and the body and tail of a fanciful fish. Its equine forefeet terminate in flippers rather than hooves. It is also known as the Hydrippus ( “water-horse”) or Horse-Eel, and was a favorite art subject in GrecoRoman times, especially in Roman baths, where it is frequently found depicted in mosaic. In Roman lore, the Hippocampus was said to be the fastest creature in the ocean. It is thus the favorite steed of Poseidon (Roman Neptune), King of the Sea, and a team of them draw his chariot. Fig. 2. Poseidon on Hippocampus These beautiful white horses of the sea are a perfect metaphor for the plunging waves have given rise to many stories involving their exploits. They have been known to save drowning sailors, to pull ships through difficult passages and to do battle with various dread monsters of the deeps. In the ancient Phoenician and Etruscan fashion, they are sometimes depicted with wings like the statues at the famous Trevi Fountain in Rome. Poseidon’s favorite Hippocampoi was a stallion named Skylla and a mare named Sthenios. Enbarr of the Flowing Mane was the steed of the Irish Sea God, Manannan Mac Lir. A personification of the waves, Enbarr could travel swifter than the cold, naked wind of Spring over the sea as easily as over land. He also ferried the souls through the Western Gate to the Blessed Isles. No one could be killed or seen if they did not want to be seen when mounted on his back, he had a magick bridle which had the property of causing an image of anyone working evil magick to appear in a pail of water, nevertheIan Daniels, from a sculpture by Oberon Zell

Creatures of Night 197 less Mannanan gave him to his foster-son Lugh who was a sun god. In China, little seahorses were once thought to be baby sea dragons. This name has been given to the Leafy Sea Dragon (Phycodurus eques) (shown) and the Weedy Sea Dragon (Phyllopteryx taeniolatus), charming little fishes related to the common Seahorse (Hippocampus), which are decorated with leafy projections to camouflage them among seaweed. The SeaDragon is also a heraldic beast with the foreparts of a dragon and a fish’s tail. Fig. 3. Sea Dragons Among the Seri Indians of northwestern Mexico, there is a legend of a man who fled into the sea to escape his pursuers, tucking his sandals into the back of his shirt above his belt. Once in the water he was transformed into a seahorse, thus explaining the origin of that animal. The Sea-Horse appears in European heraldry as the Hippocampus, with webbed feet in place of hooves, and a long dorsal fin down its back. A Hippocampus is the right-hand supporter of the Isle of Wight arms, the supporters (on either side) of the crest of the city of Newcastle upon Tyne, and also the arms of the University of Newcastle, Australia. A Hippocampus is also prominent in the logo of Waterford Crystal, and is the logotype of illustrator W. W. Denslow.1 The Havhest (“sea-horse”) is a gigantic Sea-Serpent of Scandinavian folklore, with a horselike head and a double-lobed tail like that of a fish. It has glittering yellow eyes, a long mane down its back, and forelimbs like a seal’s. Its double row of fangs may grow to 6 feet long. On top of all this, it also breathes fire! This sinker of ships has only been seen a few times since the 19th century. Such a malevolent Sea-Horse is also said to inhabit Britain’s Shetland and Orkney Islands. Called the Tangie (Danish, “seaweed”), it resembles a scruffy pony with a long, shaggy mane of sea wrack; or, it may appear as a Merman. It terrorizes lone travelers along the lochs at night—especially young women, whom it abducts and devours. And on the Isle of Man, fishermen fear a horse-headed Sea-Monster they call Yn Beisht Kione (“the beast with the black head”). The Mosquitos tribe of the Caraibes Indians of Honduras, Central America, tell tales of the Wihwin, a horselike Sea-Monster with huge fangs. During the hot, dry months, the Wihwin leaves the ocean and prowls the land seeking human prey. It returns to the sea when the rains come. Hippocampus is now the scientific name given to the curious little fish commonly known as the seahorse (Fig. 5). Looking very much like the mythic beast, the largest species is only 14 inches long. This name has also been given to a part of the brain that is shaped somewhat like a seahorse. Because the cerebral hippocampus is resistant to damage from epileptic seizures, the National Society for Epilepsy chose the seahorse for its mascot. They named it Cesar, after the Roman emperor, Julius Caesar, who was believed to have had epilepsy.2 Fig. 8. Hippocampus in brain The Rosmarine Although the name “seahorse” has been given to little fishes that look remarkably similar to the mythic Hippocampus, the original SeaHorse of legend was undoubtedly a walrus. Fig. 4. Heraldic Sea-Horse, or Hippocampus Fig. 6. Horseheaded SeaMonster by Olaus Magnus (1555) Fig. 7. Wihwin Fig. 5. Real SeaHorse Fig. 9. Walruses Heraldic Sea Dragon Leafy Sea Dragon

198 A Wizard’s Bestiary Although it may seem odd to us that anyone could have equated the ungainly walrus with the graceful horse, keep in mind that hippopotamus means “river horse” in Greek. Ancient peoples did not have as wide an acquaintance with large, four-footed animals as we do, so their basis for descriptive comparisons was limited. If you are encountering a large beast for the first time and trying to describe it to someone else, you have to do so in terms the other will understand. Now, if I’d been in that position, I think I’d have likened the hippo to a giant pig—which would have been more zoologically correct. But perhaps horses were more familiar to whoever assigned that name to the hippopotamus, and so we’ve been stuck with it ever since. It is a similar situation with the Sea-Horse, Merhorse, or Morse. In British and Scandinavian folklore, this is described as a giant fish having the head, mane, and foreparts of a horse, and cloven hooves. Equally at home on land or sea, it was often seen basking on ice floes. And early English explorers of northern Canada reported a beast they called Equus Bipes(Latin, “two-footed horse”). They described it much as they would a Hippocampus: with the body and great, fanlike tail of a monstrous fish and the foreparts of a horse. These creatures were certainly walruses. Fig. 11. Equus Bipes (4th century Roman amphora) Medieval sailors told of a huge, scaly fish they called the Sea Hog, Marine Boar, or Marine Sow. According to naturalist Ambroise Paré (1517–1590), one was seen in the North Sea in 1537. It had the body and head of a huge boar, with a fishlike tail and reptilian forelegs. It also had prominent tusks, which clearly identify it as a walrus. A heraldic version of this tusked beast—with a quarter moon behind its horned head, Dragon’s feet, eyes on its sides, and a fish tail—was called the Wonderful Pig of the Ocean. Fig. 12. Wonderful Pig of the Ocean The Rosmarine (also called Rosmarus or Rosmer; all meaning “horse of the sea”) was a fantastical depiction of the walrus, shown with tusks pointing upward rather than downward as they are in reality. In Norwegian waters the same giant sea-monster was called Roshwalr (“horse-whale”), Ruszor, or Cetus Dentatus (“toothed whale”), and described as having a bulky, smooth body like a whale’s and the head of a horse. A severed head was sent to Pope Leo X in 1520; it was drawn at the time and later described by Paré. It has been clearly identified as a walrus, which has therefore been given the scientific name of Odobenus rosmarus. Tursus is a marine monster of Finnish legend, described as having the body and head of a walrus with a humanoid torso and arms. It derived its name from the Thursir (frost giants) of Norse myth. WaterHorses Water-Horses are amphibious beasts with horselike heads, believed to lurk in the depths of many rivers, lakes, swamps, and pools throughout the world. In the British Isles they are often described as grey or black horses whose hooves point backward. They are said to be able to change shape at will. It is said that if one mates with an ordinary horse, its progeny will always lie down in the water when crossing fords. Their temperament ranges from relatively docile to voraciously carnivorous. A friendly Water-Horse may allow a human to ride it over a river, but if he should mention the name of Christ, the beast will drop him into the water. In Scotland the WaterHorse is called the Kelpie. It lurks in freshwater lochs, marshes, and rivers, preferring torrid rapids to placid pools. Normally it is an ugly black beast, part horse and part bull with two sharp horns, but it can also shapeshift into the form of a beautiful white horse. The Kelpie operates much like the Phooka, in that it lures travelers onto its back and then rides into the sea or the loch to drown and then eat the rider. The main difference is that the Phooka is Fig. 10. Hippopotamus—”river horse” Fig. 13. Rosmarine, or Boar Whale, by Gesner (1558) Fig. 14. Kelpie by Joe Butt

Creatures of Night 199 more playful about the business whereas the Kelpie often intends to eat his passengers. Occasionally, however, the Kelpie might help a miller by keeping the mill wheel turning at night. In Ireland the same creature is known as the Peiste or the Aughisky. It inhabits seas and lochs and is very dangerous. Appearing as a tame horse, it is easy to catch and invites weary travelers to mount it, whereupon it plunges into the nearest water and drowns them, devouring everything but their livers. As long as riders keep the Aughisky away from water there is no danger, but any sight or scent of the sea means certain doom because it will bolt and dive in, dragging the rider down. It sometimes appears human, except for its horselike ears. But the Each Usige, a Highland water horse, is the fiercest of all its kin. It appears like a sleek and desirable horse but if you even touch its skin you will stick fast and be dragged off into the deeps where the Usige will drown you but devour just your liver. In northern Wales, local legends tell of the CeffyllDwr(“water horse”), a glowing, grey, horselike monster haunting waterfalls and mountain pools. It was said that anyone brave enough to attack and kill this evil creature would find no solid body but only an amorphous, fatty mass floating on the water. The Afanc is another evil water-beast of Welsh folklore resembling the Hippocampus or Water-Horse, sometimes with elements of a crocodile or beaver. It is also called Adang, Abhac, Abac, Addanc, Addane, Adanc, or Avanc. Lurking for prey in river pools near Brynberian Bridge, Afanc would pull in those who were unlucky enough to wander too close, and would also cause random flash floods in the surrounding areas. Other locations where it was seen include Llyn Llion, Llyn Barfog, and Llyn yr Afanc. The Afanc was eventually destroyed, some say by King Arthur himself. It is very likely that this is the same beast known in Irish folklore as the Dobhar-Chú (Gaelic, “water hound”; also Dorraghow, King of the Lakes, Dhuragoo, Dorraghowor, Dobarcu, Anchu). A voracious, man-eating, otter-like creature, it is considered the father of all otters. Reported back at least to 1684, it is described as being “half wolfdog and half fish,” 6– 8 feet long, with short, white fur and a dark brown cross on its back. Some, however, say it is hairless with slimy black skin. Because of its ferocity, locals call it the “Irish crocodile.” Loch Oich, Scotland, is a narrow stretch of fresh water feeding directly into Loch Lochy (home of Lizzie) and separated from Loch Ness by the Caledonian Canal. Sightings of an enormous beast known as the Oich Monster date back to the 19th century. It is described as an equine- or dog-headed serpent, with black skin, two humps, and a snakelike neck with a long, horselike mane. Scalloway in the Shetland Islands north of Scotland has its own Water-Horse. Variously called Neugle, Nogle, Noggle, Nuggle, Nuggie, or Nygel, it resembles a horse, with a green mane and a peculiar tail similar to a wheel curling over its back. It appears saddled and bridled, prancing invitingly on the shore. But should anyone mount it, the Neugle will plunge into the water, drowning—or at least drenching—its victim, whereupon the beast will disappear in a dancing blue flame. The Isle of Man is home to a ferocious freshwater monster called the Cabyll-Uisge (“water-horse”) or Each Uisce (“water monster”). Similar to other Water-Horses, it lures its victims into the water, where it tears them apart and devours them. The Glashtyn can also appear as a handsome young man to entice fair maidens to their undoing, but his horse ears are a dead giveaway. In the Hebrides, the Biasd na Srognig (“beast of the lowering horn”) is a huge, ungainly Water-Horse with very long legs and a single horn protruding from the top of its head, similar to an aquatic Unicorn. It lives only in small lochs on the Isle of Skye. And the Buckland Shag is a Water-Horse in the folklore of Buckland, Devon County, England, where red stains on a large rock were said to be the blood of its victims. Few dared venture into its territory for fear of being trampled to death. Fig. 15. Aughisky by Ian Daniels Fig. 16. Afanc on old Pictish stone carving Fig. 17. Dobhar-Chú on old stone carving Fig. 18. Neugle by Oberon Fig. 19. Cabyll-Uisge by Dana Keyes